How Planetariums Got So Good
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- Опубликовано: 7 июн 2024
- Planetariums showcase the latest in our technological innovation and scientific understanding. With the help of some friends I explore their past, present, and future.
Check out Romke's video on the Mark 1 Projector: • Sijthoff - Zeiss Plane...
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This video was brought to you by an unhealthy amount of coffee and our awesome Patrons at / atomicfrontier .
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Hi, I'm James. I explore the world looking for engineering stories which explore complex issues in interesting ways. I hold a First-Class Honors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Western Australia and am currently studying a Masters of Space Systems Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
My website is www.atomicfrontieronline.com, I occasionally tweet from / atomicfrontiers , and you can join the Atomic Frontier Discord server to talk about cool engineering stuff at / discord . You can help support my work and see some cool behind-the-scenes content at / atomicfrontier .
Plot twist: the entire episode is filmed on the LED stage and I never left Australia.
You’re genuinely an incredible filmmaker, no matter where you go it always looks magnificient, now you’re using an LED stage! I can’t imagine what you’ll do now. also porn ad
I can't read
I don't believe you ;-)
Come back to Perth! All you need is the SciTech planetarium hahaha
I can’t believe that you have been tricking us the whole time
"I'm at the heart of a dying star"
No James, you're clearly in a warehouse.
the warehouse is the star of the show and it was dying.
To be fair we have since installed a nice curtain to make it look less like a warehouse ;)
This single moment, including the awkward entry into the shot made me subscribe. LOL
The dying star is the planetarium projector?
have YOU ever seen inside the heart of a dying star?
You're really becoming a natural in front of the camera - congratulations on all your personal growth as your channel has advanced and all the best for more great, informative videos.
As a planetarian, I really enjoyed your documentary on the history of planetariums! At the planetarium where I work, we have the best of both worlds; a 1st generation Goto Chronos optical mechanical (2006) and an RSA Cosmos Sky Explorer system using a Barco F-70-4K6 (2022) as the digital projector. :) "Keep looking up!" :)
James! Yeah, I'm working in Honolulu over the next few days and found this video!
How does one start in the planetarium space ? I have been interested and in love with Planetariums for all my life, and I would love to dig deeper into the topic !
@@nolram Hi, Nolram! It depend mostly on budget, but you can have a modest portable planetarium or if the funding is there, a full-sized permanent structure (10-30 meters in diameter). What are your plans?
@@JamesAlburyTheSkyAboveUs Oh, I wasn't planning to build a planetarium, I think I formulated myself poorly. I was more asking how a person can get into the planetarium ecosystem, as in : Where does one start their journey to become a planetarian ?
For most of my entire youth I was amazed at planetariums and not once did I ever think to look up their history or engineering feats - I loved this! Amazing video James :)
You’ve done it again - great deep dive into a topic we haven’t seen much before. Boldy go, indeed.
I was a planetarium instructor for a few years while studying at college, it was an amazing experience and using one of the old Spitz A3P models complete with analogue switchboard. They are currently renovating the math and science building and installing a digital projector. It was an honor to work with such a marvel of engineering and it astounded me that it still worked up until they took it out for the renovation.
Some of the biggest wow moments I remember from my childhood were due to a Spitz STP in West Hartford Ct. at the Gengras Planetarium. My god that thing was amazing. Hell, still is really. The science museum the planetarium is at was pretty nice too.... I will never get sick of seeing the 50 foot tall Foucault pendulum there with the stairs winding around it.
TBH I am somewhat jealous of you...... I never got to touch one of those magnificent machines. Back in the 80s (when I was a kid), working with things like that was basically what I dreamed of. As a kid, I was a regular at that science museum. Also, rather moreso, there was the Talcott Mountain Science Center (which along with a planetarium, has a few telescopes and other nifty things) where I spent a few summers doing what amounted to nerd day camp with their summer program.
(I settle for dabbling with astrophotography using an old school GEM, with the only electricity in it, powering the drive.... can be fun hopping from star to star to star to nothing, hooking up a camera, and then seeing if I got the directions right when I finally get to look at what can be a 5-6 min exposure at times.... never get that kind of fun with a computerized or GOTO mount.... anyways I digress.)
addendum: I just looked into what the Gengras Planetarium has today, and apparently they removed it in 07 and sent it to the Planetarium Projector Museum in Bear Lake Ca., and the people there at the museum have since restored it. Now they have a digital one..... makes me sad.
edit: I just checked to see what kind of projector the Talcott Mountain Science Center has, and it is a Spitz A3P.
edit 2: Minor clarification, I love that the STP got restored, preserving history and restoring antiques are things I wholeheartedly support with every fiber of my being. I am only saddened by the switch to a modern digital system. Though it is understandable.
Spitz made planetarium setups that were cheap enough that some high schools could afford them--I remember seeing the one at Jefferson High School in Annandale, VA, now TJHSST.
I hope it is kept in a museum and well conserved
We had traveling planetarium in elementary school. Still one of the best things I remember doing as a kid.
The Boston MoS planetarium has both that optomechanical Zeiss and a digital projection system, and when they transition between the two to show digital effects, you can really tell how much sharper the optomechanical projector's star display is. It's not as flexible, but digital projectors still aren't quite at the point where they can match them for pure image quality when projecting the night sky.
I remember once running into someone who brought binoculars to a planetarium show. He taught me that good old school projectors have detail way beyond the limits of the human eye’s perception, and a little magnification brought new objects into my vision as if I found an Easter egg. Digital isn’t anywhere near that yet.
Amen. I love having an optical mechanical sky (Goto Chronos SN 11, 2006). We have a beautiful fulldome digital as well (RSA Cosmos, Barco F70-4K6), but whenever I have our weekly constellation show, I like to treat the audience to a realistic sky with the Goto.
I will soon get my first telescope - really looking forward to see stars and planets properly with my own eyes.
I did the same after first watching Cosmos! Ive had a lot of fun with it
I've been playing with astrophotography. you just need a camera, lens, and tripod to start... Stuff I already had.
8:20 You know that word was "space!"
Love the wordle thing in the RGB graphics
when?
I love this video. It directly plays into what I am interested in - Space and Computer Graphics. Bravo James and the Team !
I got to tour Evans & Sutherland’s facilities when I was in high school. They’re one of the companies that sparked my lifelong interest in computer graphics.
The first time I ever got to play with a computer with a 3D accelerator board, it was a MicroVAX with an Evans and Sutherland accelerator, aimed at scientific and engineering visualization. That was in the late 1980s. The capabilities were crude compared to what any off-the-shelf computer today is capable of, but at the time it was astounding.
Extremely interesting stuff! I love the way you communicate; it's simple and to the point, while containing everything you need to know. Keep it up! 😁
I am a former planetarium educator from Czech republic. I started working with an old Zeiss projector but then we upgraded to a hybrid Digistar/Goto system. I spent many hours writing scripts in Digistar 5 and 6. Probably the best years of my professional life. I've heard of Domex, but never had the chance to see it.
Thank you for this. Super interesting and well made... and thank you SO MUCH for not playing too much music while you speak. It makes for a much more pleasant viewing. Great job.
Watching the Australian college kid show me drone footage of my backyard is a bit trippy. Love to see it. 🥰
These videos are so interesting and well produced, you really do deserve way more subs.
If seeing the stars near where you live is important to you, please let your city councils know! Often, they don’t receive much input on lighting projects at all, and go with options that cut the number of stars down dramatically. Cities don’t have to be light polluted; look to Flagstaff, Arizona. The number of stars you can see from downtown is truly amazing.
Thanks for posting this. I didn't realise it is still a problem; having heard years ago about some cities having low-pollution streetlights, I assumed progress had happened and the lights just weren't that great, but it's good to know something can still be done.
Your videos are just so well produced, another fantastic learning experience. Thank you!
By far my most favorite channel. I learn so much everytime and James's, upbeat, positive energy & attitude always lifts my spirits and puts me in a good mood everytime!... 😊
Awesome video, James. I don't know if you take requests... but I recently became aware of the physics behind pulse oximeters and it is seriously incredible. I'd love to see them feature in one of your videos some day!
Oooh hadnt even thought about that! Will take a look
Not impossible, when he first started at MIT he asked for suggestions of local/regional topics.
One of the absolute best non-industry shows about planetariums I've ever seen! Thanks so much. And - perfect for the 100th Anniversary of the first projection planetarium coming up in 2024.
I think the last time I was in a planetarium was as an elementary schooler in the 90s. I’m amazed by how much they’ve changed even since then. I feel like I could fall through the Domex and just float away.
I absolutely love this video. I've been working in a planetarium running shows for about 9 months now and it's great to get a history on it
Holy shit this might be the best channel on RUclips that I just somehow found. The topics, the engineering, it’s literally unmatched to anything I’ve ever seen. Bravo
This was really good!
I hope RUclips can start recommending this.
As someone who works in a planetarium: a pretty solid look at the history and the (near) future, for a 12-minute video! :)
I know even more details about the history that I personally think are quite interesting, but that would have been a different narrative overall, so I can't complain too much for them not being included 😄
This video is put together so well. Kudos to you and your team.
James.. I believe this is the Very Best I have seen on You Tube. Brave Jim. Fantastic Job. All my best from the US... Jim
Your videos have been fantastic lately! I found you after the sea monsters video & have loved your channel ever since!
This is one of my favorite channels. Never stop doing you.
Every one of your short films impresses me more than the last. Bravo! Every time, bravo!
Amazing channel, very well produced, keep it coming!
I used to run my university's planetarium for public shows every Friday night. Our planetarium consisted of two digital projectors that each display half of the dome. It was a similar construction to what was mentioned here with the perforated holes in the dome. There was also a normal projector that would display on the front side of the dome which resulted in a home movie like experience with the cushioned chairs.
They gave me my own set of keys to enter and turn on the computer. It was so fun going in by myself late at night and watching some RUclips videos on the projector or just flying through the stars and chilling instead of doing homework. In my book, it was a big flex showing my friends their own personal planetarium show when there wasn't a class inside.
Your Videos were really good before, but this feels like a proper Documentary I used to watch as a kid on the Discovery Channel. So professional, but still full of jokes. And I really appreciate that you go into a lot of detail while still breaking it down enough to make it easy to understand.
I feel so lucky to have found this channel.
I haven't even been to the new planetarium on my cities waterfront. Like everything, the cost to enter has gotten astronomical. $20 just to enter the museum, an additional $35 to utilize an actual Planetarium program.
The technology has to be paid for, but costs like that mostly keep me out too. :/
Thank you! Planetariums are fantastic places. I've often said that if I had gobs of money a small planetarium (as well as an observatory) would be part of my home.
That's not going to happen, but I did have the good fortune to visit many planetariums back in the day as a laser light show operator. I experienced some amazing places and met some wonderful people!
The sound systems in planetariums do tend to be impressive. Some of those domes hide a LOT of speakers and audio channels! "Dark Side of the Moon" in the dome with speakers everyfreakingwhere powered by a couple of big racks full of amps is just hard to beat.
I got to play around a bit with an early Digistar projector once. As cool as that was, nothing quite compares to those beautiful old-school electro-mechanical-optical projectors.
BTW, a planetarium director informed me that the "projector" is properly called the "planetarium" and the "screen" is the "planetarium dome."
Cheers!
Severely under represented RUclipsr. Just found your channel and have no idea why you don't have at least a million subscribers. With great content like this, you're definitely the next big thing. Love to see some colabs with other RUclipsrs
I just stumbled into this channel, but I have to say that this guy has got to be one of the most skilled presenters (and probably writers) I've ever seen among "amateur" presenters. Well done, man.
8:21 Nice Wordle skills there
I work in a planetarium so this is fantastic to see. I"m actually going to have a meeting soon to discuss the LED panel screen option.
Congratulations @James we are so lucky to have you with us at MIT | Aero Astro
If I'm not mistaken, it has been a year since you appeared on Tom Scott's channel as one of his substitutes! That is from where I discovered this channel. Nice to see this channel thrive since!
Cool video. I have a unique perspective. I watched your video on my phone while servicing the hybrid GOTO / E&S planetarium in Honolulu, Hawaii. I travel the world as a planetarium technician for Ash Enterprises. I've been installing and maintaining planetariums for 16 years. Enjoyed your video!
This is a truly amazing video. Good job!
This video is so fantastic! I love it! I still enjoy looking at the stars every night provided a clear sky. I even got my first telescope a couple years ago and just received my first astral photography CMOS yesterday! I cannot wait to take some deep field pictures with that space is the most wonderful thing ever!
The fact that this much effort and technology is put into educating and entertaining the public is a beautiful thing.
While I do appreciate the technology that's been brought to planetariums, I do wish old goldies such as Maggie at the Edmonton Space and Science Center (yeah, I know it's been called the Telus World of Science Edmonton for a long while, I still refuse to call it by it's new name) would at least get to continue living on. She put on a really good show, and it always had a lot of knowledge with it too.
Everyone involved on this video did a really neat job, cheers!
Thank you for an excellent presentation. In just a short time I've learned a lot. Great work.
You consistently blow my mind. Hats off!
You deserve move subscribers cause your really good at these videos of your. Keep entertaining and educating cause this is engaging and interesting
Keep it rocking.
While a 160K is a shit ton of people the quality you deliver needs to get 10x that.
It may take time, so enjoy the journey as well, best of luck!
I recently had the chance to visit the Zeiss Grossplanetarium in Berlin and wow, what an experience. Thank you for providing some context on this amazing technology :)
I swear you somehow manage to make the most interesting videos from completely random topics
I work as a planetarium presenter. Love to see content showing the history of planetariums. We have a few mobile planetariums which we take all around the U.K. Such a cool experience. Thanks for the cool video.
I like these vids so much. thank you! ❤️
This is a fun bio! I started my planetarium career using the original Digistar projector. I can add some nerdy details about that Digistar II cabinet in case anyone cares....the bottom of that Digistar II cabinet is actually full of power supplies for various projector parts (amplifiers, cards, etc.). A separate computer ran the system, plus a graphics rendering box sent data to the projector for the projector to draw. For the very first Digistar systems, the computer was a Microvax, and for Digistar II systems it was a Sun Sparc 5. I still love those systems. Not enough light bounced around the theater to see the person sitting next to you, so your brain was tricked into believing the virtual reality illusions created by the projector. I can still hear kids--and adults--asking, "Were we really moving?" and "How did you do that!"
Fantastic subject for a video- awesome job
Excellent video, thank you so much!
very informative, i'v been to a couple of different planetariums, but the best so far is the one in flint mi. it has a zeiss projector. beautiful crisp images.
Lovely piece of machinery. Thank you for the upload 😉
That was some fascinating journey through time.
Its kind if ridiculous how nicely produced this video is.
Amazing video and even more amazing ending remarks about the stars and true night.
Does anybody has any idea what software is used to split the screen for proyecting 7:58 ?
I said "Whoah" out loud four times during this video.
I don't know how you do it, but you keep raising the bar and making videos on such interesting topics.
The quality of that video was something that something else, one might say say it was out of this world.
fantastic work my man
Great presentation and story.
All that technology and the audience get to sit on garden picnic chairs, lol. Thanks for another fantastic video James, keep it up.
My love for space and astrophysics started in a planetarium and it's not boring, it's epic!
You have good energy, few have that keep it up and good luck!
Great deep dive. Although I find it worth mentioning that the old style planetariums still live on in hybrid systems. The Planetarium Hamburg for example has a Zeiss Universarium 9, which is a system with the iconic ball in the middle (and also coincidentally the best planetary projector in the world). The ball has 32 star field projectors that are able to simulate the sky from any point on earth. The projector's optics are advanced enough that it reaches the border of human vision, making you perceive the stars in the actual star shape you see with real stars (you have to see it to know what I mean). Such effects are impossible to recreate with just projectors or LED screens. Additionally to all of that, the ball also has high fidelity general purpose projectors for all your other display needs (360° movies, deep sky objects or the sky from other planets).
Oh, and I should mention the system has an additional array of projectors on gimbals for projecting extremely high resolution imagery of the planets, the sun and the moon.
That Digistar sounds familiar. I'm pretty sure I've seen planetarium shows in my youth in the Omniversum in The Hague that used it. This takes me back. 😄
I have not time to watch it now but I will and I will enjoy it.
Thx for you very interesting video from Bocholt (Germany)
Fantastic video, James.
The Urania planetarium in Brussels Belgium still uses a mechanical planetarium and you can also see a guided tour on it.
Another fantastic video!
Evans and Sutherland ! I've been there and the size of that Dome X is incredible. Hopefully my planetarium will move from our Digistar 5 to something that can use Dome X in the future.
I haven't been to a Planetarium since I was a kid. I wonder if you can get a tour or something at one.
Would love to know more about the mechanical starballs, like the one in the thumbnail!
Ah how funny, I immediately thought about Romke as he's part of an Astro Facebook forum I'm an admin at. Great stuff!
It's been years since I've been in a planetarium and really want to experience one again!
A very nice synopsis of planetarium projection history. A couple of small nits to pick. First of all, the first digital planetarium was Digistar 1, not Digistar 2. Also Digistar 1 had the joystick and "Boldly Go" button. Those were dropped for Digistar 2. Also Digistar was created as a planetarium device before the producers of the Star Trek movie approached E&S for star travel effects.
I've never actually been to a planetarium, and we have the oldest still working one in the world in my very own country... I should really visit some day.
You might want to take a look at the Eise Eisinga Planetarium, finished in 1781 and still working today!
Incredible video!!!!
Hey whered you hear about the 1977 plan to go to Saturn? I can't find anything online.
Great video. Subscribed!
I once visited the London planetarium with my school, always vowing to return one day as an adult, but sadly discovered it had ceased operations in 2010. I don't personally think the Marvel Universe 4D experience would be quite the same as I remember it.
awesome video!
Wow very interesting topic that I want to learn more about, unless I thought this video wasn’t that good because they didn’t show examples of the technology enough and in the right way.
Nice video man
Having been a student at the University of Utah I found it funny to recognize all of the filming locations you used (outdoors mainly I didn't go in the non math buildings very often) I crashed my scooter 🛴 in at least two of those spots 😅
in one of the early chapters of "the cosmic connection" carl talks about how they used a computer to render constelations on other solar systems based on the position and distance from earth.
bear in mind, this book came out in 1973! even bofere voyager 1 was launched
I was super excited when I heard "the Zeiss company", because we use Zeiss CMM machines to measure our jet engine blades and vanes as they progress through the the manufacturing process.
I love this channel!!!!