Planetarium to feature new projection system

By BEN HAVENS/Montana State News

The Taylor Planetarium at the Museum of the Rockies will be reopening soon with a new state of the art projection system called Digistar 5.

The Digistar 5 will, “allow visitors to experience our universe in vivid colors, visual motion and brilliant displays of light” according to the Museum of the Rockies website.

The Taylor Planetarium will be reopening on March 2 with three new shows.  “Big Sky Tonight” displays a variety of constellations for the viewer. Next, “Experience the Aurora” will be showcasing the aurora borealis. “Viewers of One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure” will get to join Sesame Street’s Big Bird as he travels to the moon.

According to Eric Loberg, planetarium program manager, “Color can now be used in the actual show rather than in just stagnant slides.” Shows can now use Dolby 5.1, which will improve the definition to a whole new level. According to Loberg the upgrade was necessary because,  “Shows were no longer being made with the old system.” The planetarium hadn’t been renovated since 2001.

According the Evans and Southerland, the projector’s developers, Digistar 5 is, “the fastest-selling digital planetarium in the world, offers full-dome video playback, real-time computer graphics, and a complete 3D digital astronomy package fully integrated into a single theater system.”

– Edited by Noah Bostrom