Craig Ryan
01-24-2008, 10:55 PM
So I just got back from the first meeting for my new Astronomy class here at the College of San Mateo in the SF Bay Area, and I was enthused to learn that our brand new, nation-wide one of a kind planetarium is decked out with a GOTO CHRONOS opto-mechanical space simulator from GOTO Optical Mfg.Co (hand built from Japan...worth about 750k...the thing is actually pretty wicked looking) and the Digistar 3 SP2 HD projector from Evans & Sutherland, which is essentially TWO 1080p projectors forming a giant dome image. http://collegeofsanmateo.edu/astronomy/newplanetarium.html (pics and more tech info).
Needless to say I was impressed...the image Definitely held up, and rivaled that of an IMAX dome presentation. We watched a video (aptly narrated by John Rhys-Davies) which consisted of mostly CGI renders of the universe, or of ancient Egypt. A lot of the time I had to remind myself that I was only looking at a 4th of the image and had to spin my head around to get an impression of the overall image. I'd imagine if I sat directly in the middle it would have been quite an experience. I just had to share this here because I felt like the only one drooling over the fact that we were basically getting an IMAX experience in a class at a community college.
Needless to say I was impressed...the image Definitely held up, and rivaled that of an IMAX dome presentation. We watched a video (aptly narrated by John Rhys-Davies) which consisted of mostly CGI renders of the universe, or of ancient Egypt. A lot of the time I had to remind myself that I was only looking at a 4th of the image and had to spin my head around to get an impression of the overall image. I'd imagine if I sat directly in the middle it would have been quite an experience. I just had to share this here because I felt like the only one drooling over the fact that we were basically getting an IMAX experience in a class at a community college.