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NVO and The Digital Planetarium

NVO and The Digital Planetarium. Ed Lantz Product Development manager Spitz, Inc. NVO Outreach Workshop. July 11, 2002. Dome Theaters. Traditional Planetarium. Large-Format Film Theatre. Digital Planetarium. Traditional Planetaria. Hemispheric Projection Screen Starfield Projector

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NVO and The Digital Planetarium

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  1. NVO and The Digital Planetarium • Ed Lantz • Product Development manager • Spitz, Inc. • NVO Outreach Workshop • July 11, 2002

  2. Dome Theaters Traditional Planetarium Large-FormatFilm Theatre Digital Planetarium

  3. Traditional Planetaria • Hemispheric Projection Screen • Starfield Projector • High-resolution astronomical simulation • Hemispheric Slide Projection or “All Skys” • Narrow Field Video is Common • Laser Graphics - Full or Partial Dome • Combination Large-Format Film, Planetarium • Total Annual Attendance Worldwide: 87,400,000

  4. Planetarium Facts • Planetarium Worldwide % of • Classification # of Theaters Total • School/District 999 36% • University/College 397 14% • Museum/Science Center 375 14% • Observatory/Other 201 7% • Unclassified 782 28% • TOTAL 2754 • * Courtesy The LNP Planetarium Compendium, Loch Ness Productions, 2000

  5. Planetarium Facts • Dome Size (m) # of Theaters # Tilted Domes • 3 - 6 766 2 • 6 - 9 696 3 • 9 - 12 463 9 • 12 - 15 191 23 • 15 - 18 98 17 • 18 - 21 102 34 • 21 - 27 80 40 • Portable 774 • * Courtesy The LNP Planetarium Compendium, Loch Ness Productions, 2000

  6. Large-Format Film Theater • Hemispheric Projection Screen • Tilted 20-30º typically • Large-Format Film • 15-perf, 70mm (original IMAX® format) • 8-perf, 70mm (increasingly popular format) • Dome Diameters from 15m to 28m+ • 254 LF Theaters Worldwide - Half are Domes* • 175 Large-Format Films Released* • * From White Oak Associates, Inc. Inventory of Large Format Theaters, 1998 edition

  7. Digital Planetarium • Full Dome or Partial Dome Video Projection • Multiple Edge-Blended Projectors or Fisheye • CRT, DLP, LCoS projector technologies • 30+ Existing/Planned Theaters by 7 Manufacturers • Most Use Pre-Rendered, Pre-Recorded Shows • Hi-res digital video graphics technologies • Realtime 3D Interactive Becoming Affordable

  8. Digital Dome Manufacturers • Evans & Sutherland - Salt Lake City, UT • GOTO Optical - Japan • Spitz, Inc. - Chadds Ford, PA • Sky-Skan - Nashua, NH • Trimension, Inc. - Burgess Hill, UK • Silicon Graphics/Zeiss/Schneider • Minolta - Japan

  9. Sampling of Digital Planetaria • AMNH/Rose Center - New York City • Bibliotheca Alexandria - Alexandria, Egypt • Burke Baker Planetarium - Houston, Texas • Exploration Place - Wichita, Kansas • National Space Centre - Leicester, UK • LodeStar Planetarium - Albuquerque, NM • Northern Lights Centre - Watson Lake, Yukon • National Air and Space Museum - DC • Adler Planetarium - Chicago

  10. Sampling of Digital Planetaria Bibliotheca Alexandria Alexandria, Egypt LodeStar Planetarium Albuquerque, NM

  11. Spherical Projection Formats Single Projector(Fisheye) Edge-Blended Projectors

  12. Edge-Blended Projection Polar Source is Split Into Sub-Frames and Edge-Blended Sub Frame 1 Sub Frame 2 Sub Frame 3 Sub Frame 4

  13. Fisheye Projection Polar Fisheye Source Image • Simple Configuration • Limited Hemispheric Resolution (2048x1536 pixels) • Requires Projector Inside Theater Space

  14. Feeding the Digital Planetarium • Astronomical Visualization • Night sky visualization • Naked eye and deep sky • 3D visualization and simulation • Astrophysical models • Digital Galaxy, Cosmic Atlas, Deep Space Explorer, etc. • Informal Educational Programming • Need compelling, meaningful stories • What is our place in the universe? • What’s out there? • What does it all mean? • My future, mankind’s future • Data queries & data interpretation • Visualization data mining, formatting

  15. Who Are We? • Public Planetaria • Science & astronomy educators • Media/production staff • Astronomers • School Planetaria • Science and astronomy educators • Show Producers • Writers • Art directors • Animators • Editors • Musicians

  16. Graphics Formats • Pre-Rendered Shows • Dome master format • Composited Images • All-Sky Images • Deep-Sky Objects • Realtime 3D • Texture maps • Star/Object Data

  17. Pre-Rendered Shows • Dome Master Formats • Spherical mapping format • Master format for archiving, distribution, etc. • Independent of particular projection geometry • Defined only by resolution, field-of-view, file type • independent of specific projection scheme

  18. Polar Fisheye Master Longitude 0º +90º +90º -90º 0º Polar Fisheye(Azimuthal Equidistant) -90º 180º

  19. Equidistant Cylindrical Master Equidistant Cylindrical +90º 0º Latitude -90º -180º 0º +180º Longitude

  20. Skinning a Sphere with Platonic Solids

  21. Cubic Master Advantage - Efficient File FormatDisadvantage - Scene is Broken Up, Difficult to Preview

  22. Vis Needs: Pre-Rendered Shows • All-Sky Images • Celestial sphere at all available wavelengths • specified coordinate system • compositing must be seamless, no missing data • Numerous mappings acceptable • azimuthal equidistant (separate hemispheres) • equidistant cylindrical • Hammer-Aitoff • cubic • Deep-Sky Objects • Need sufficient metadata!

  23. All-Sky Image Resolution Number of Pixels Required to Project Eye-Limited Resolution on Hemisphere: Number of Pixels = (0.5) (4 steradians) (57.3°/steradian)2 (60 arc min/deg)2 (0.5 arc min/pixel)2 = 300 Million Pixels!!!

  24. All-Sky Image Resolution • Fisheye Projection Systems • 1024x1024 or 1536x1536 polar frame • Edge-Blended Projection Systems • up to 4000x4000 polar frame • Highest Resolution All-Sky Images in Use • 14,000x7200 equidistant cylindrical (3 arcmin) • Nearly 300 MB file! • Seamless Transition to High-Magnification Images • Deep sky zoom with higher resolution

  25. Deep Sky Objects • Many Excellent Images Available from STScI/Aura • Where Do They Go in the Night Sky??? • Need Metadata! • Image angular height/width • Image center RA/Dec • Image rotation w.r.t. celestial coordinates • Image brightness/magnitude? • Estimated object distance (for 3D systems) • Simplified Search Capability a Plus

  26. Deep Sky Zoom

  27. Deep Sky Object Resolution • Higher Resolutions allow Seamless Zooms • 1024x1024 useful • 4000x4000 better • 8000x8000 best!

  28. Image Formats • Numerous Formats in Use • TARGA is currently most popular format • Compression artifacts can be a problem • High Dynamic Range Formats Needed • Display dynamic range limited (1000:1) • HDRI, Cineon, others…

  29. Other Ideas… • Automated Downloads • Solar weather • Solar system images, data • Transient phenomena • Current terrestrial/space based images & metadata • “Edu” releases – current event items • Connecting People & Resources • Not all data is accessible online • Queries can actually drive future research • Amateur astronomer image exchange • Astronomers have stories to tell… we need stories

  30. Thanks...

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