Approved: Prague will purchase the most modern projection system for the planetarium for 250 million
Councilors Hana Třeštíková and Pavel Vyhnánek (both Prague Sobě) informed about the new projection system earlier in June.
“The planetarium boasts one of the largest domes in the world, but it is lagging behind technologically and soon the existing technology will be completely obsolete. By switching to modern LED-Dome technology, we will become one of the world’s leaders, such as Dubai or Osaka, Japan, where, compared to Prague, there is a dome one meter smaller, ”said Vyhnánek recently.
The Prague Planetarium is the largest planetarium in the Czech Republic, and with a projection dome with a diameter of 23.5 meters, it ranks among the largest in the world.
Beyond life
“An existing projector can be used every day. The new projection system is expected to last approximately 25 years, but it is mainly a culture of great investment in education as well. We want to motivate children and adolescents and arouse their interest in space and science. These are areas that have a great future. With the new projection system, the Prague Planetarium will become the best planetarium in the world, which will certainly be an attraction for many visitors from all over the Czech Republic and abroad, “Třeštíková commented on the planned investment for Novinky.
The LED-Dome technology, which was only launched in 2018, is expected to require lower maintenance costs than other available systems. It creates a separate dome consisting of tens of millions of LEDs that make up an image.
“By acquiring this projection system, the Prague Planetarium would become the largest planetarium with this advanced technology in the world. There are only three domes with LED-Dome technologies so far, but all of them are smaller than the Prague Planetarium, “says a document from last week’s meeting of Prague’s representatives.
According to the municipality, the advantageous system has a long service life – the mentioned 25 years – and lower maintenance costs. In addition, the planetarium now still projects on the original dome from 1958, which is not perfectly spherical, which may cause deformation of the projected image.
The planetarium is currently equipped with a digital projection system SkySkan, which was acquired in 2009 with 4K image quality, five years later it was upgraded to 6.5K. The system had an estimated service life of about 10 hours of operation and reached this limit in the thousand in 2019.
At that time, the optical projectors were severely damaged and overhauled. The repair was demanding due to the unavailability of parts – projectors of this type are no longer produced, individual parts had to be sought around the world. The costs of the existing design system and overhaul amounted to CZK 65 million.
The repair managed to extend the life of the projector by about two to three years, the end of its life was further delayed by limited operation within the pandemic. However, according to experts, the replacement is already necessary.
Temporary closure of the planetarium
The modernization will be in charge of the planetarium itself, which wants to select suppliers by the end of the year.
“When work begins at the end of 2022, there is a realistic prospect of opening a new planetarium at the end of 2023. During the closure period, the planetarium can provide its services through the mobile planetarium at its disposal,” he writes later in the document.
The director of the planetarium, Jakub Rozehnal, pointed out that due to the given replacement of the projection system, the planetarium will be closed for the necessary period of time.
“A number of construction tasks need to be carried out, including the replacement of the air conditioning system and the modification of the projection hall equipment. We estimate the length of the completely complete deadline to be half a year, probably from April to September 2023, “said Rozehnal, who is the head of the Planetum organization, which brings together the Štefánik Observatory, the Ďáblice Observatory and the Observatory and Planetarium of the Capital City of Prague. m of Prague.
The Prague Planetarium in Stromovka was opened in 1960. It offers a program for the public and schools. For those interested in astronomy, there are also a number of courses of interest and circles.