During the celebrations for the opening of its planetarium featuring state-of-the-art ZEISS technology, The Deutsches Museum in Munich held the first presentation in the planetarium during the official Germany start of the International Year of Light initiated by the UN General Assembly.
The Deutsches Museum in Munich celebrated the opening of its planetarium featuring state-of-the-art ZEISS technology on 27 February 2015. The first presentation in the planetarium was held during the official Germany start of the International Year of Light initiated by the UN General Assembly. ZEISS provided the high-performance projection system for the new 15 meter dome that is large enough for 160 visitors.
The new technology includes a ZEISS Sykmaster ZKP4 opto-mechanical projector, which projects a particularly natural night sky using LED illumination. Furthermore, six ZEISS VELVET digital projectors were installed, which deliver the world’s greatest contrast ratio (2,500,000:1). The projected images simultaneously show both very bright and extremely dark objects with outstanding resolution. The planetarium projector and digital projection are coupled via the ZEISS powerdome computer system. This means that the video projection system can superimpose constellations and many other objects onto the projected night sky without impairing its brilliance.
“We are proud to once again equip the planetarium in the Deutsche Museum with globally leading ZEISS technology,” stated Dr. Michael Kaschke, President and CEO of Carl Zeiss, during the opening ceremony. The world’s first projection planetarium went into operation at the Deutsches Museum 90 years ago on 7 May 1925. Oskar von Miller, founder of the Deutsches Musem, contacted ZEISS in 1913 about the construction of a “rotatable star dome.” Dr. Walther Bauersfeld built a system on the basis of opto-mechanical light projection, which depicted the stars on the dome. The Model I from ZEISS projected 4,500 stars on the inside of the dome. Since then, the planetarium in the Deutsches Museum has welcomed more than 8.5 million visitors – most recently 80,000 on average every year. The planetarium will reopen its doors to the public on 1 March 2015. “Visitors will once again be able to enjoy the fascination of light and be inspired the infinite expanse of the universe,” explained Kaschke.
“Astronomy no longer deals with just the stars visible from the earth,” said Gerhard Hartl, Curator for Astronomy at the Deutsches Museum. “Today, we know much, much more about the structure of the universe and the chronological development of the cosmos.” And this is exactly what will be conveyed to visitors. According to Hartl, the modern projection technology from ZEISS is ideal because it can show not only illuminated dots, but also images and entire shows. Even virtual journeys through space are possible. Visitors can cover the 13.7 billion light years to the edges of the visible universe in just 10 minutes – they can fly by the planets of our solar system or view the Milky Way from the outside.