Emma Gray
Editor
On the night of Wednesday, Feb. 21, the Board of Trustees approved a plan for Parkland’s William M. Staerkel Planetarium to update the software on its projectors used to cast shows onto the planetarium dome.
“Right now we have a digital projection system and the software is called Digistar. So we’re at Digistar four, which in 2010 was the cream of the crop,” said David Leake, director of the planetarium.
Eight years later, advances in technology have caused Parkland’s software system to become relatively outdated which is why the planetarium will now be updating to Digistar six, the newest edition.
Currently the planetarium’s computer system only allows it to have two-dimensional views, but with Digistar six the planetarium will be able to have three-dimensional spaces. This will allow the planetarium to do things like rotate the Milky Way to show it from a different angle.
The updated software also gives the planetarium other new features.
“We’re going to be able to run along planetary surfaces,” Leake said. “We’re going to be able to do open captioning. We’re going to be able to do dome casting.”
Dome casting gives the planetarium the ability to project shows happening elsewhere in the world onto its dome through the Internet. This means that Parkland audiences could view a show, or talk as the show is happening, in another city.
Parkland will also be able to access a number of Cloud sourced materials. For those studying weather at Parkland, this means that datasets from sources like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be available to be put on the dome.
Leake is currently in the process of scheduling when Evans and Sutherland, the company that sells Digistar, will come to the planetarium and update the software. He hopes that this will take place in early August so that it does not interfere with classes. The planetarium will have to be closed for a couple of weeks while the software is updated and implemented.
Installation should only take five to seven days, however it will take time for the planetarium staff to learn how to use the software and to convert their shows so that they can run on Digistar six. Most of the work to convert the shows will be done by the planetarium’s production designer, Waylena McCully according to Leake.
The planetarium will also be receiving new optics blocks to replace the ones in the current projectors. The current optics blocks have been slowly failing according to Leake. This has caused things like the contrast to not be as good as before.
According to Leake, everything will cost around $187,000. Most of this money will come from the planetarium’s foundational endowment and the interest that has accrued over time. Some of the money will also come from the planetarium’s revolving account, which includes money the planetarium has made off of sales. There will also be some masterplan money from Parkland to help pay for this expense.
