Talks and Presentations
Friday September 1st 2017
How animals follow the stars
James Foster is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Biology, Lund University. He talked about night active animals and how they use the night sky to orient and navigate. As a part of his research he has been using the Lund University planetarium.
GOTO
The most realistic skies in the planetarium world are from GOTO opto-mechanical projectors. No video system can match the resolution, contrast, color and intensity of GOTO's LED-illuminated precision optics. Superb mechanical engineering, innovative design and exacting quality control combine to make projectors with typical 30-year lifetimes and amazing accuracy.
The connection between the outer and inner universe
Urban Eriksson is a astronomy eduction resercher. His research focus is on what visualizations offers for learning astronomy at all levels. He talked about reserach results concerning disciplinary discernment and spatial thinking in relation to experiences offered by planetarium presentations.
RSA Cosmos
Since 1985, RSA Cosmos has designed optical, digital and hybrid planetarium equipment at the forefront of technology for museums, observatories, theme parks, amusement parks and universities. With more than 250 planetariums around the world, RSA Cosmos is the industry leader in Europe and a global partner. Offering audiences a stunning visual experience, RSA Cosmos implements comprehensive 4K, 6K and REAL 8K solutions in 2D or 3D, tailored to your needs and dreams. Based on its hyper-realistic planetarium software SkyExplorer 4, RSA Cosmos’ solutions give satisfaction to demanding users and bring enchantment to visitors.
In 2017, RSA Cosmos is proud to announce the installation of two REAL 8K Planetarium in the City of Science and Industry in Paris, and in The City of Space in Toulouse, IPS 2018 Host.
Skypoint / Evans & Sutherland
Skypoint Planetariums proudly represents Evans & Sutherland in Europe. Based in Italy, Skypoint specializes in small and large planetarium installations since 2006, with more than 100 mobile planetarium installations and 25 fixed planetariums up to 8K so far in Europe.
Their planetarium software, Digistar, is in a class all its own, providing powerful features and the most user friendly interface in the industry. Its robust digital theater platform offers presenters day-to-day reliability matched with innovative tools to inspire the most demanding audiences.
Saturday Septermber 2nd 2017
The Nordic Film Days in Lübeck
Ralph Heinsohn is a planetarian from Experimenta Heilbronn. Last year he founded and curated a new fulldome part of the Nordic Film Days festival, which is a 4-days non-commercial cultural event in the city of Lübeck. With approx. 30.000 visitors this is a great oportunity for Nordic Fulldome filmmakers to create interest for the fulldome format outside the planetarium community (presentation is available upon request).
Sky-Skan Europe
Sky-Skan's Definity theaters are built to transport audiences to another place and Digital Sky DARK MATTER is their new simulation and control software. It is designed by planetarium directors for planetarium directors. It delivers performance no other system can match. Breathtaking image quality, awesome reliability, fluid timeline programming, limitless modular expandability, flexible control interfaces and a powerful underlying control language that gives you the ability - when you need it - to go way beyond sequential event queuing.
Taking advantage of timezones - remote observing with Stone Edge Observatory
Amanda Pagul from Yerkes Observatory (University of Chicago) will be joining us via weblink to tell us about oportunities and challanges associated with remote observations. If the weather allows we can do some quick observations with the Stone Edge Observatory in Californa during this session.
Gaia: A billion-star 3D map of the Milky Way
Paul McMillan is a postdoctoral researcher at Lund Observatory working with Gaia data processing, dynamic modeling and Milky Way research. Astronomers at Lund Observatory have been involved with ESA's space astrometry missions for the past three decades, first with Hipparcos and now with Gaia. We will get to hear the latest news directly from the Gaia team.
Bowen Technovation
Bowen Technovation brings to the design table a vast array of experiences in working with immersive and planetarium theaters construction/renovation. We specialize in integration of astronomy projection, domes, audio, video, control systems, LED lighting and instructional presentation technologies.
Bowen Technovation also specializes in museum and science center exhibitions. The firm takes pride in working with designers and content producers to develop affordable ways to make exhibit experiences special. In some cases we have designed as many as 100 electronic exhibits in a single project. And in one case we filled 230,000 square feet with our systems.
Upcoming productions from Greenwich
Tom Kerss presents upcoming projects and shows from Greenwich Observatory Planetarium.
WISDOME - New domes for science communication
Four leading Science Centers in Sweden have joined forces in the WISDOME-project, funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation, to form a network in Science Communication focusing on immersive dome theaters and digital science exhibits. New interoperable dome infrastructure will be built at the Norrköping Visualization Center, Universeum in Gothenburg, Tekniska Museet in Stockholm and Umevatoriet in Umeå. Fulldome productions focusing on a range of scientific topics will also be produced within the project. Anna Öst is the head of production at the Visualization Center C in Norrköping and producer for the WISDOME productions. She will talk about the projects, the objectives and the potential impacts of immersive science communication.
Sunday September 3rd 2017
Hands-on astronomy workshop
Planetariums are more than just an experience on a dome shaped canvas, and many subjects are better understood, if the audience are allowed to work with them hands-on. In this hands-on workshop we got to see:
- Tina Ibsen and Mikkel Theiss Kristensen from the Tycho Brahe Planetarium, showing us three different exercises: Mars landing, Paper rockets and Astronaut food. All three activities have been tested on a number of different audiences, and can be easily implemented on your own institution at a limited cost.
- Rauno Pilvik from Energy Discovery Centre demonstrates how from simple materials we can make a beautiful quadrant and use this at night and their workshop called ”Crystal constellations”.
- Frederik Motland Kirkemo and Sven Gundersen (Jærmuseet) are bringing ”Hands on surprises from the Sciense circus”
- Marianna Back from National Museum of Science and Technology showed us the material used for their hands-on astronomy activities.
- Aase Roland Jacobsen form The Steno Museum Planetarium talked about their “Great Bear” pre-school program about what you can see in the sky.
SCISS
SCISS is a fulldome company from Sweden that realizes fulldome theater solutions for planetariums, science centers, museums, and educational institutions all over the world. Our mission is to provide a complete range of products and services to your institution, to help enlighten and inspire your community with scientific visualization. The Colorspace theater is a carefully designed package of display systems, servers, theater control system, and the award-winning Uniview fulldome software is powered by scientific databases and physically accurate visualizations
SOFTMACHINE / Reef distributions
SOFTMACHINE produces premium immersive content in 2D and 3D for digital cinemas, planetariums, science centers, entertainment parks and is now transferring its expertise to the production of VR experiences. Our works have been translated into more than 25 languages and are shown in over 55 countries all around the world. Producing films for a hemispheric canvass requires a different approach. With our many years of experience, we master the artistic and creative process of 360° film making: storytelling, editing, camera, sound, music.
At NPA 2017 they showed us their latest award winning production “THE SECRETS OF GRAVITY – In the footsteps of Albert Einstein”. (see Reef Distributions for more detail)
Production company Bufo
Bufo is a Finnish production company founded in 2007 that has been responsible for films such as Academy Award Winner Jörn Donner’s Armi Alive! and, as coproducer, Aki Kaurismäki’s The Other Side of Hope—winner of a Silver Bear at the Berlinale.
Directed by Axel Straschnoy and produced by Bufo, Renaissance Cinema is being made by the team responsible for Kilpisjärvellä—Finland’s first ever planetarium film. Kilpisjärvellä won an honorable mention at the Jena Fulldome film festival as well as the Edith-Ruß-Haus award for media art. It was projected in festivals from Melbourne to Helsinki, from Buenos Aires to Santa Fe.
