Astronomy - New technology for planetarium on its 100th anniversary
The world's longest-serving planetarium in Jena is to be technically upgraded for its 100th anniversary in 2026. Talks are already underway with the Ernst Abbe Foundation, which owns and operates the planetarium, Martin Kraus, Head of Planetariums at Carl Zeiss GmbH, told dpa. The star theater in the Thuringian university town is already one of the most modern in the world. However, the digital projectors and control software in particular are constantly being further developed.
The planetarium in Jena has attracted many millions of visitors since it opened in 1926. The Zeiss company developed the planetarium technology on behalf of the Deutsches Museum in 1923 and built the world's first planetarium at the company's headquarters in Jena. Many people are particularly fascinated by the stars at Christmas time.
According to the company, eight digital projectors are installed in Jena, which display content without shadows and complement the optical-mechanical star projector.
The Zeiss company had already looked back on the development of planetarium technology 100 years ago this year together with the Deutsches Museum in Munich. According to Kraus, the existing Zeiss planetariums are visited by around eleven million people worldwide every year. Visitors virtually go on a space mission - "that is the expectation today". In the virtual, three-dimensional world under the dome, they become space travelers.
The Carl Zeiss company, headquartered in Oberkochen, Baden-Württemberg, has installed technology for around 700 planetariums in 52 countries over the past 100 years. In 2023, modern star theaters were equipped in Halle, in the Emirate of Sharjah (Sharjah) and in Seoul, South Korea, among others.
The planetarium division at the Jena site, which employs more than 2,000 people at Zeiss, is comparatively small: according to Kraus, 30 specialists develop, manufacture and install the technology and software, which is tested in the company's own dome before delivery.
Carl Zeiss on 100 years of planetariums History of the Jena Planetarium
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Source: www.stern.de
