Sharing the Dome with a Zeiss Star Projector
Swiss Transport Museum, Lucerne Switzerland


The Swiss Transport Museum planetarium in Lucerne had a problem. They wanted to have full dome video capability, but they did not want to sacrifice the integrity of the starfield as projected by their Zeiss instrument. The Zeiss projector presented a real challenge as it extended way above and around the dome center. The Museum really wanted the Zeiss and SkyVision systems to work together and no solution, fisheye or projector array, had ever addressed this.

The Sky-Skan team went to work on the job and quickly arrived at a novel solution. Instead of shooting the projectors across a diameter line to the opposite side of the dome, make them shoot a chord around the edge of the Zeiss projector's operating envelope. It would require two additional projection points and special image counter distortion settings, but the SkyVision system was designed to be flexible in that way and the task was not hard.

When the Planetarium premiered it's new SkyVision system, audiences were able to enjoy the wonders of both the SkyVision full dome video and the pure Zeiss night sky. No one in the audience ever knew what a challenge that was, but that's what we do. We solve problems and make the amazing look effortless.