Innovation Special Planetariums 9 - Carl Zeiss Planetariums
Innovation Special Planetariums 9 - Carl Zeiss Planetariums
Innovation Special Planetariums 9 - Carl Zeiss Planetariums
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SKYMASTER ZKP 2 and powerdome –<br />
the Successful Union of Unlike Brothers<br />
SIRIUS, an observatory-cum-planetarium<br />
complex in the Swiss town of<br />
Schwanden high above Lake Thun,<br />
opened its doors to an expectant public<br />
on October 14th, 2000.<br />
The beginnings<br />
The original equipment of the 8-m<br />
dome planetarium, consisting of a<br />
SKYMASTER ZKP 2 planetarium projector<br />
then 17 years old and second-hand<br />
Allsky slide projectors, was operated by<br />
hobby astronomers on a voluntary basis.<br />
While the presentation of the night sky<br />
and the planetary motions was highly<br />
satisfactory in general, weak points were<br />
that time-lapse runs covering several<br />
years could not be presented, that a<br />
free-hand projector was needed for the<br />
constellation figures, and that few slides<br />
only were available for the Allsky system.<br />
When, on top of that, we ran out<br />
of spares for the latter, it was high time<br />
for some major conversion.<br />
36 <strong>Innovation</strong> <strong>Special</strong> <strong>Planetariums</strong> 9, 2012<br />
Dipl. El. Ing. HTL Daniel Schweizer,<br />
President<br />
Dr. Ekkehard Stürmer, Programmer<br />
and Presenter<br />
The aim<br />
Because of the high quality of<br />
star imaging, it was no question that the<br />
ZKP 2 was to be kept for the time being<br />
and to be replaced with a ZKP 4 at a<br />
later stage. In addition, it was desirable<br />
to be able to show fulldome stills and<br />
movies, for the purpose of education<br />
and training rather than mere entertainment.<br />
To ensure that voluntary staff<br />
could continue to operate the equipment<br />
as easily as possible, we aimed at<br />
a combined control of the fulldome and<br />
ZKP 2 systems.<br />
The procedure<br />
The Astronics company replaced the<br />
ZKP 2 drives with stepper motors, a<br />
prerequisite for digital control. They<br />
also installed an electronic lamp control<br />
system. When SPACEGATE Quinto<br />
was installed a year later, an interface<br />
card was all that was needed to<br />
control all ZKP 2 functions via the<br />
powerdome®ShowManager. There was<br />
nothing then to stop reopening in October,<br />
2010.<br />
Observatory and Planetarium SIRIUS in the “Berner Oberland”.