Hybrid - Digital Planetarium

Hybrid - Digital Planetarium was inaugurated by the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamilnadu on 19th November 2019 in the presence of The Hon'ble Minister for Higher Education , through video conference.

A Planetarium is a theatre of the Universe with hemispherical screen. It is a place where we can visit to see what the night sky looks like. It can surround us with an accurate image of the sparkling night sky. It can also show all the motions and cycles of the sky.

A special projector in this theatre shows us the stars and other objects in the night sky. The Planetarium will introduce us to a life-long acquaintance with the sky and the Universe.

B. M. Birla Planetarium, with its optomechanical projector and slide projectors, was operational for over 30 years from its inception, on 11 May 1988. During this period, over 60 lakh visitors visited the planetarium to view the shows.

To keep pace with modern technology the planetarium was renovated with the incorporation of the most advanced Hybrid Projection System and a new hemispherical dome for high quality images

Hybrid Planetarium is the new generation in planetarium system, combining the beautiful starry sky projected by opto-mechanical projectors with fulldome digital video systems which bring dynamic colorful images to the dome such as apparent motion of stars, space flight, planets, nebulae, galaxies and other astronomical images.

So the gorgeous starry sky projected by the opto-mechanical projector is joined by constellation figures, lines, names, and other images which are projected by fulldome digital video systems and precisely positioned over the stars on the dome screen.

In the hybrid planetarium system, the new advanced central star projector projects the stars and the planets as we see in the night sky, along with constellation images on the dome.

The 5 high resolution (4k) digital projectors in the periphery of the planetarium, controlled by the most advanced digital machines, can project stunning immersive video and breathtaking images of the celestial objects.

The combined system can instantly display the night sky at any place in the world at any given time in the past or future. We can show the sky map of a place for any place / any time any period 10000 years back or 10000 years in the future.