Children and adults alike will soon be in for a 8K-3D treat at the iconic Nehru Planetarium at Teen Murti Bhawan in Delhi with the authorities deciding upon an international-level upgrade to its existing sky theatre.
This is the 250-seater theatre with seats in a circular form where the solar system is projected on a 15-meter diameter dome. The existing system is 2D system installed many years ago by a US firm, SkySkan Inc. The upgrade, worth Rs 12 crore, will involve installing a parallel ‘High Resolution Full dome Immersive Hybrid 8K 3D’ system to run alongside the existing system but with far better features like “auto geometrical correction, auto image stitching, auto blending, 7.1 surround sound and 3D spectacles,” as per a document seen by News18.
This will enable “seamless full dome film shows and astronomy digital planetarium simulation shows” with a combined resolution of “50 Million pixels without blending”. To achieve all this, the system will have the latest with astronomy simulation software, the document mentions. Tenders have been invited for this yesterday.
So What will Change?
The new system will display 3D models of Sun, planets including their moons, minor orbital objects including asteroids, 88 constellations, earth-orbiting satellites, outer solar system, comets and the Kuiper belt. It will also show space missions like Cassini, Voyager and Voyager 2, the latest Mars Missions, International Space Stations, important Indian spacecraft and space missions apart from the Milky Way galaxy, open star clusters as well as extragalactic space including Tully Galaxies and Abell Galaxy Cluster.
“The system must include the American Museum of Natural History Digital Universe and must be able to display a volumetric Milky Way Galaxy in real-time,” the document says. It adds that the ‘Astronomy Picture of the Day by NASA’ should be capable of full integration into the system and the same must include capability that enables planetarium to broadcast live dome presentations to other planetariums in the community. It adds that the 3D aspect of projection should be uniform over the entire dome including when using real-time graphics and the system must have professional quality graphic computers.
The History
The Nehru Planetarium in Delhi runs four 2D digital public shows daily on the solar system, asteroids, astronauts and light pollution. It was inaugurated by Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the Sky Theatre here used to attract nearly 2 lakh visitors a year before the Covid pandemic struck. It is part of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library on TeenMurti grounds named after the first Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru.
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