The Madrid Planetarium is renovated and migrates to 4K optical-digital projection technology

The facility begins the new technological phase of its projection room to show the Universe with a Japanese hybrid Megastar equipment and the immersive system (Full dome) Sky-scan, paying tribute to the thirty years of uninterrupted service of its previous Carl Zeiss Jenna star projector.

The renovated screening room Madrid Planetarium has reopened its doors after a year of works and an investment of 4,2 Million, result of the collaboration agreement between the Madrid City Council and La Caixa Foundation, to show your visitors impactful projections, contents, Astronomy and astrophysics exhibitions and activities with their new hybrid optical-digital equipment, Installed by the specialist Sky-Skan.

Inaugurated by the mayor of the Madrid City Council, Manuela Carmena, and the director of institutional relations of the bank's foundation, Fernando Pastor, the room has two professional video projectors with 4K resolution, installed opposite each other in the perimeter gallery of the room, whose optics have been specifically designed for this project and for projection on a spherical screen, managed by a computer team with state-of-the-art cards.

This powerful hardware incorporates Sky-Skan's digital software, which has a large astronomical database and allows the observation of the sky from anywhere on Earth or from any point in space, as well as showing in detail the solar system, appreciate the movements of the stars over the centuries, See where the thousands of extrasolar planets that are currently being discovered are located, Navigate your way out of the galaxy, etc.

The renovated room, with a capacity to 245 Seats, has a hemispherical screen on the ceiling of 17,5 meters in diameter. The system is completed with a Japanese optical planetarium Megastar IIA, which is synchronized with the digital system, capable of projecting perfectly punctual stars, As they look in the real sky, and show the Milky Way in a realistic way.

This equipment allows operation in three different modes: Live system operation, Real-time navigation from pre-programmed orders and projection of videos or movies in fulldome format, previously carried out for planetariums, such as the Hayden Planetarium in New York, by specialized companies.

A special tribute is received by the previous optical star projector of the Planetarium -Carl Zeiss Jenna-, displayed in the lobby of the facility, where the audiovisual 'Imitating the sky' is shown, which explains the representations of the sky and the operation of this equipment that has worked for more than thirty years.