Since its opening in 2019, the Winn Science Center’s planetarium has transported countless students and teachers among the stars with its state-of-the-art SciDome 7 projection system. However, throughout the years, it’s become obsolete. Recently, a new system called the Digistar 7 was brought to St. Mark’s to upgrade the planetarium.
The Digistar 7 is the latest and most advanced planetarium system created by Cosm. The new upgraded system will replace the old computers that ran the projection dome, add two new tuning cameras and use new software to run the planetarium shows. At first glance, the changes will only be a quieter atmosphere and a better full-dome projection. However, the fundamental differences will be in the shows themselves.
With the new computers and software, they will now be of higher quality and run smoother. The new software will access a cloud library to project real-time data and shows created by other planetariums across the nation onto the wide screen.
“They’re going to have really high resolution visuals that are produced in real time,” Master Teaching Chair and Planetarium Director Dr. Michael Lane said. “Now you can fly basically anywhere in the universe using an Xbox controller.”
Around the last week of May, the new system will be installed, overwriting all of the previous programs, bringing a bittersweet end to the old projection system.
With Digistar 7, Lane hopes to hold shows more frequently and add visual aids to classes for interested students to come in and watch.
“I want to have a continuously running program displaying pre-planned shows so people can just come in during their free time and experience it,” Lane said.
