Its Ok to build a Halfway House

Something has struck me about planetariums, when you go to build your own, the theater is daunting. We start out wanting to recreate that 'surrounded by the starry heavens' experience, but soon learn an even modest dome is well .. celestial in size. But do we always have to build the whole dome? How good really is our peripheral vision - we cant really SEE the whole vault of heaven all at once usually.

There is a solution .. for those of limited space, or budget . build a half dome. Like the Renwalls Cosmorama of old, can the projector not turn and provide differing directional views on a half dome surface? Suddenly building requires alot less ..

Put your projector on a turntable .. seat your audience all in one direction just like the tilt dome big boys do .. and have at it.

Full dome of course will always be special. But you can build a halfway house for alot less and reap most of the same benefits ..

and isnt getting there, as always .. half the fun?

Perpetual Change

There may be an important difference between a public professional planetarium and a home planetarium - in the former, while of course up to date equipment and varying programs are a necessity, it is still a production space, a place of business, meant to put through the maximum possible people or patrons.

Not so the private planetarium.

While patrons may be a goal, and they surely add atmosphere and purpose, the private home planetarium may thrive more on perpetual change. We are hobbiests and dreamers as much as educators and showmen. Therefore a static theater can become boring.. sitting there 'in case' the phone rings and a group wants to come out.

To me, the home planetarium has to constantly shift - the configuration, even the instrument. What Mr or Ms random viewer sees may have been in the dome a year, or less than a day .. its this endless fascination, this tinkering and building, that keeps the pursuit alive for us.