1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,039 --> 00:00:14,600 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:17,439 Speaker 1: job and Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio 4 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:19,680 Speaker 1: and a love of all things tech. It is time 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:24,240 Speaker 1: for a classic episode, my friends. This episode originally published 6 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:29,000 Speaker 1: on May nineteen, twenty fourteen, back when we had three 7 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:33,720 Speaker 1: pieces of tech. How far we've come. So this particular 8 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:37,280 Speaker 1: episode is about how planetariums work. So I would say 9 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:41,200 Speaker 1: it's out of this world. Let's take a listen. So 10 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: there are a lot of different types of planetariums that 11 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:47,199 Speaker 1: all use a very similar approach, but you know, the 12 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: actual implementation can differ between one and the other. But 13 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:54,240 Speaker 1: we wanted to talk more about all of the kind 14 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: of history that built into coming up to the planetariums 15 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:00,000 Speaker 1: as well as how they actually work. Right. We didn't 16 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 1: I just explain it's a projector and then go in 17 00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:06,280 Speaker 1: from there. I mean, because because y'all basically it's a projector. Yea, 18 00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:08,040 Speaker 1: So we could just say it's a projector, and if 19 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:12,200 Speaker 1: you know how a projector, it's a Friday, so we're 20 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 1: ready to go home. But no, we wanted to actually 21 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:19,160 Speaker 1: talk about the history of planetariums because it's a fascinating story. 22 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:22,959 Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, as as a species, humans have been 23 00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:27,800 Speaker 1: fascinated with the heavens since before recorded history. I mean, 24 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:32,680 Speaker 1: this is something that we've obviously been really amazed by 25 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:36,960 Speaker 1: over thousands of years. It's pretty amazing. And what's interesting 26 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: is that there have been lots of different attempts to 27 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:47,119 Speaker 1: create a an indoor version of this experience, because it's 28 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:49,880 Speaker 1: not always convenient to go outside and do all your 29 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:53,360 Speaker 1: your work. And based upon thousands of years of observations, 30 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:56,960 Speaker 1: we've got pretty good at figuring out how to represent 31 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:59,800 Speaker 1: the night sky in a way that was accurate even 32 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:02,920 Speaker 1: the movement of things like planets in the moon and 33 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:06,760 Speaker 1: the sun and Earth itself. Yeah, I mean it took 34 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:08,920 Speaker 1: us a while to figure that part out, that the 35 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:12,160 Speaker 1: Earth itself was moving and not say everything else was 36 00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:14,880 Speaker 1: moving around the Earth. And depending upon whom you are, 37 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:19,280 Speaker 1: you might still argue that thinking of a specific documentary 38 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:24,400 Speaker 1: that Jane Way was the voice for anyway, So assuming 39 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:27,920 Speaker 1: you're not having this geocentric view, even even that would 40 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:31,280 Speaker 1: allow you to see that the the heavens move in 41 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:34,760 Speaker 1: a very predictable way. It may take a long time 42 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:37,040 Speaker 1: for a particular cycle to happen. But once you know 43 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:40,840 Speaker 1: what those cycles are, you could predict make observations that 44 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:46,160 Speaker 1: would end up either verifying or or negating the previous 45 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:51,400 Speaker 1: guesswork and eventually make it into a science. So why 46 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:57,239 Speaker 1: our planetariums themselves awesome? Well, for one, you get to 47 00:02:57,240 --> 00:02:59,360 Speaker 1: look at the stars, even if again you are in 48 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:01,600 Speaker 1: a place where you can't normally see them, like here 49 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,639 Speaker 1: in Atlanta, we get a lot of what's called light pollution. 50 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:08,680 Speaker 1: So that's just you know, any major city tends to 51 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:10,760 Speaker 1: have this where you've got lots of lights that are 52 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:13,360 Speaker 1: on at night, and that tends to drown out some 53 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: of the stars. You can't see the fainter ones. You 54 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:18,680 Speaker 1: really only see the brightest ones that are in the sky. Uh. 55 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:20,519 Speaker 1: You know, you might be able to see things like Venus, 56 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:23,720 Speaker 1: which are that's that's extremely bright, and you might see 57 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:26,919 Speaker 1: some of the major stars and some of the major constellations, 58 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:30,120 Speaker 1: but you're missing out on a lot. Oh certainly, so 59 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:32,639 Speaker 1: unless you go way out into the middle of nowhere 60 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:35,200 Speaker 1: where there aren't so many lights, or you have to 61 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 1: live someplace that has really strict rules about the lights 62 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 1: at night. Because there are a few of those places 63 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 1: you probably can't see that many and even in those 64 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,280 Speaker 1: places it sometimes rains or gets cloudy. That turns out 65 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:51,839 Speaker 1: clouds really inhibit the stargazing activities. Also, the sky over 66 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:55,000 Speaker 1: the Southern Hemisphere is different than that over the Northern Hemisphere. 67 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:58,320 Speaker 1: So um, if if you don't travel back and forth 68 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: pretty frequently between the two, yeah, you don't know. If 69 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:05,120 Speaker 1: don't cross the line over at the equator and shout 70 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,040 Speaker 1: out to all my navy buddies who do. Um, if 71 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:10,480 Speaker 1: you don't do that frequently, yeah, you don't. You miss 72 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:12,920 Speaker 1: out on the way the sky looks and in the 73 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 1: Southern Hemisphere or if you live in the Southern Hemisphere 74 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:18,719 Speaker 1: the Northern hemisphere. So to our new deal and listeners, 75 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:20,360 Speaker 1: there's a lot of you. There's actually quite a few 76 00:04:20,360 --> 00:04:22,880 Speaker 1: of you. Um, I will not confuse you with the 77 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:28,640 Speaker 1: Australian listeners. We love all of you equally. So if 78 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:30,320 Speaker 1: you've never been there, but you want to see what 79 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:33,760 Speaker 1: the sky looks like, a planetarium, some of them anyway 80 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:36,839 Speaker 1: can accommodate you. A lot of them have the capability 81 00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:41,039 Speaker 1: of showing the stars over any particular point on Earth 82 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:44,520 Speaker 1: like that's how sophisticated they've become so. Not only that, 83 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:47,440 Speaker 1: but they many of them can also show you what 84 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:50,000 Speaker 1: the sky would look like on any given date, So 85 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:52,840 Speaker 1: you might say, well, what did the sky look like yesterday, 86 00:04:52,839 --> 00:04:55,240 Speaker 1: What will it look like tomorrow? What will it look 87 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:57,800 Speaker 1: like in a century? What will it look like a 88 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:00,360 Speaker 1: hundred centuries from now? What did it look like back 89 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:03,599 Speaker 1: in the day that Shakespeare wrote his plays? Like, you 90 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:05,479 Speaker 1: could do any of those things, and by plugging in 91 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:09,280 Speaker 1: some some numbers. The computers that handle the calculations for 92 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:12,040 Speaker 1: most of these uh devices, not all of them, some 93 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:13,720 Speaker 1: of them are a little older, but most of them 94 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:17,599 Speaker 1: can take that into consideration and actually determine what the 95 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:20,680 Speaker 1: position of the planets would be on any given date, 96 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: the stars, etcetera. Which is pretty awesome. Yeah. Um. They 97 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:27,000 Speaker 1: can also be used to teach celestial navigation, and they 98 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: certainly were used for that purpose during World War Two. 99 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: Very useful, especially if you can't always depend upon instruments 100 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:39,479 Speaker 1: to be able to get around. Also, uh, hey, uh 101 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:43,400 Speaker 1: it teaches astronomy, which you know, I always almost left 102 00:05:43,400 --> 00:05:45,040 Speaker 1: that out of the notes, and I was like, yeah, 103 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:47,919 Speaker 1: that's uh, that's a big deal. I guess that's a thing. Yeah, 104 00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:51,160 Speaker 1: so obviously the astronomers out there if you want to 105 00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:55,880 Speaker 1: be able to identify various star clusters things like that. 106 00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:59,839 Speaker 1: And a lot of these have special um projectors that 107 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:03,040 Speaker 1: show things like the Milky Way galaxy or other nebula 108 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:06,080 Speaker 1: or things like that. And that's important. Oh sure, sure, 109 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:09,320 Speaker 1: but we will get into that later on. Um, let's 110 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:12,080 Speaker 1: talk for right now about the history of these devices, 111 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:16,080 Speaker 1: because people have been painting the sky on ceilings, I mean, 112 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:19,240 Speaker 1: for for basically ever. Yeah, I mean, like I got 113 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:21,320 Speaker 1: a cousin who has the Glow in the Dark ones 114 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:25,120 Speaker 1: that's been on her her bedroom ceiling like since she 115 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:28,040 Speaker 1: was like four. So yeah. Also, there's a star map 116 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:30,440 Speaker 1: on the ceiling of the tomb of the Egyptian official 117 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:36,239 Speaker 1: Sentement that dates from like that does predate my cousin, 118 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:39,200 Speaker 1: so a little bit. Your your argument is valid. Yeah, 119 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:41,880 Speaker 1: I mean this is something, like I said, humans have 120 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:44,719 Speaker 1: been fascinated with the stars for as long as we've 121 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:48,680 Speaker 1: been looking around and being able to express our thoughts. 122 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:52,480 Speaker 1: So it's no surprise that we're seeing evidence of that 123 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:57,400 Speaker 1: in in prehistoric and and uh, you know, just post historic, 124 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:03,120 Speaker 1: fairly historic uh you know, drawings and and uh and 125 00:07:03,160 --> 00:07:06,359 Speaker 1: depictions on things like this tomb. And then we have 126 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:09,680 Speaker 1: some early examples of what could be something like a 127 00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:14,600 Speaker 1: planetarium from the Arabic world. Right right there, there were 128 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:17,560 Speaker 1: Arabic tents made with holes in the fabric to let 129 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:21,320 Speaker 1: outside lights shine through, representing each star or each star 130 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:24,920 Speaker 1: as they knew them in in that time. UM described 131 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:28,640 Speaker 1: in European History Circle that twelve hundreds or so, and 132 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:30,640 Speaker 1: so that's that's you know, that's a good while back, 133 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:34,400 Speaker 1: right and then we had, uh, let's let's switch up 134 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:37,520 Speaker 1: to say, oh, I don't know, let's let's go to 135 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: the idea of using globes and sky maps. This is 136 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:42,880 Speaker 1: really cool too, So starting a couple of thousand years ago, 137 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:45,480 Speaker 1: it became really popular in the West to draw sky 138 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:49,120 Speaker 1: maps on globes and um the first planetariums known to 139 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:52,000 Speaker 1: history were huge versions of these, like big enough for 140 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:54,920 Speaker 1: people to sit in. A really famous example is the 141 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:58,880 Speaker 1: gor Top globe, supposedly based on plans found among Tico 142 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:02,440 Speaker 1: Brahe's papers. Okay, so wait, wait, wait, Tico Brian, I've 143 00:08:02,480 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 1: always heard Tycho Bray. Where did you hear Tico Brian? 144 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:09,160 Speaker 1: I'm one of my astronomy professors in college called him Tico. 145 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:11,760 Speaker 1: That's good enough for me. So, I know, I know 146 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:15,760 Speaker 1: that the Penny Arcade dude calls himself tycho, but hey, 147 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:19,520 Speaker 1: we're going with an astronomy professor's approach. I'm I'm all 148 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:22,960 Speaker 1: right with bowing to authority on this one. He had 149 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:26,600 Speaker 1: a really impressive beard. So that also, I mean, that's 150 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:30,520 Speaker 1: like credentials in the astronomy world. So that's totally cool. 151 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:32,600 Speaker 1: So that that was that was built in the mid 152 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:35,280 Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds and what's now Germany, and it was large 153 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:37,800 Speaker 1: enough for like twelve people to sit in on these 154 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:41,760 Speaker 1: circular benches that were around a table um where refreshments 155 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:44,680 Speaker 1: could be served. Obviously, yeah, um so so the so 156 00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:47,360 Speaker 1: the object, this globe was about ten feet or three 157 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:51,200 Speaker 1: meters in diameter, and the stars in it were these gilded, 158 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:54,960 Speaker 1: spangled fixtures in the inside surface of the globe that 159 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:57,000 Speaker 1: we're eliminated by a lamp that would sit on the 160 00:08:57,000 --> 00:08:59,920 Speaker 1: table along with your you know, snacky cakes. Interesting. So 161 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:04,120 Speaker 1: it's like it's like if you look at a regular globe, 162 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:05,840 Speaker 1: you know, that's something that we look at on the 163 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 1: outside service obviously that's you know, representing the Earth. But 164 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:11,400 Speaker 1: this is one where we would go on the inside 165 00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:14,199 Speaker 1: and we're looking at the inner wall, which is representing 166 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:17,440 Speaker 1: the heavens, the heavens right right, and the outside of 167 00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:20,559 Speaker 1: it was actually painted like like the Earth. It had 168 00:09:20,559 --> 00:09:22,400 Speaker 1: all of the continents and everything on it. Pretty cool 169 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:25,520 Speaker 1: that whole globe shell could could rotate around the viewers 170 00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:28,080 Speaker 1: thanks to some water powered machinery. And it took some 171 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:32,920 Speaker 1: ten years to build and weighs like three tons, despite 172 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:35,200 Speaker 1: which it was moved to St. Petersburg as a gift 173 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 1: to Peter the Great in seventeen seventeen. Shortly after that 174 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:44,240 Speaker 1: it was partially destroyed in a fire, then restored, then 175 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:47,199 Speaker 1: stolen by the Germans in World War Two, found by 176 00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:52,240 Speaker 1: US troops, and restored again to St. Petersburg. Pretty sure, 177 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:55,400 Speaker 1: that should be an Indiana Jones plot, right, it's great, 178 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:59,880 Speaker 1: And this thing weighs three tons. It takes some determination 179 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:03,839 Speaker 1: to steal anything that weighs three tons. That's pretty incredible. 180 00:10:04,120 --> 00:10:08,000 Speaker 1: But so the practice of making these these enterable sky 181 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:11,360 Speaker 1: globes like this unwieldy as they were persisted into the 182 00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:14,880 Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, and the Museum of the Chicago Academy of 183 00:10:14,920 --> 00:10:18,880 Speaker 1: Sciences built their atwood globe as late as nineteen um 184 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:21,199 Speaker 1: and that's that's about the same size a little bigger 185 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:23,800 Speaker 1: at measure sixteen feet that's about five meters in diameter 186 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:28,080 Speaker 1: um and shows six stars plus the planets in our 187 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:32,200 Speaker 1: Solar system as as holes through which outside light can shine. 188 00:10:32,240 --> 00:10:36,200 Speaker 1: It's electric and the shell can spin once every eight 189 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:39,400 Speaker 1: minutes around viewers. Interesting, and so this is kind of 190 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:42,079 Speaker 1: it's it's like it's taking a note back from those 191 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:45,880 Speaker 1: old Arabic tents, right, the lights coming from outside shining 192 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:48,520 Speaker 1: through holes, and that's what represents the stars, very much 193 00:10:48,559 --> 00:10:50,679 Speaker 1: like those tents that had the holes pin break through 194 00:10:50,679 --> 00:10:53,720 Speaker 1: the tent canvas right right. You know, of course this 195 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:57,559 Speaker 1: depends on either in this case probably electric lights outside 196 00:10:57,640 --> 00:10:59,320 Speaker 1: or in the case of those tents, having a good 197 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:02,960 Speaker 1: source of sun light in order to see what's going on. Um. 198 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:05,920 Speaker 1: By the way, a couple of distinctions that I wanted 199 00:11:05,960 --> 00:11:08,040 Speaker 1: to make here. If you've ever heard of an order 200 00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:11,120 Speaker 1: e um, that's that's a physical model of the planets 201 00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:15,880 Speaker 1: in our Solar system and sometimes also called a planetarium, 202 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:20,160 Speaker 1: and they're also sometimes included in planetariums. So that's nice 203 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:23,560 Speaker 1: and confusing, right, So orris are if you've ever seen 204 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:25,640 Speaker 1: one of those physical models where you've got the Sun 205 00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:27,160 Speaker 1: in the center, and then you have all the different 206 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:30,160 Speaker 1: planets that can spin around the Sun. Sometimes they are 207 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:34,160 Speaker 1: actually mounted on gears or motors so that it represents 208 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:37,959 Speaker 1: the accurate movement of each of these bodies as they 209 00:11:37,960 --> 00:11:41,200 Speaker 1: would move in relation to one another. So for example, 210 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,160 Speaker 1: the Earth's uh, the Earth's movement around the Sun is 211 00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:48,559 Speaker 1: different from Saint Mars, which is different from Neptune or Saturn. Anyway, 212 00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:50,959 Speaker 1: you would be able to watch these and see how 213 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:53,520 Speaker 1: they move in relation to each other, see the times 214 00:11:53,559 --> 00:11:56,280 Speaker 1: when they happen to align, when they get out of alignment, 215 00:11:56,840 --> 00:12:00,559 Speaker 1: and it's really fascinating to see an or but it's 216 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:03,960 Speaker 1: from an outside perspective. You're not looking from the inside out. 217 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:06,679 Speaker 1: You're looking as if you were able to distance yourself 218 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:08,640 Speaker 1: all the way out of the Solar system and look 219 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:12,280 Speaker 1: in on it, right and and being that especially early ones, 220 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:14,199 Speaker 1: where we're you know, the planets were all on their 221 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:16,440 Speaker 1: little rods and would all be going on a on 222 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:19,400 Speaker 1: a single plane around the Sun, rather than in the 223 00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:22,080 Speaker 1: truth three dimensions in which right right, it would be 224 00:12:22,160 --> 00:12:24,640 Speaker 1: it would be as if we had a completely flat 225 00:12:24,679 --> 00:12:27,200 Speaker 1: solar system, which is not exactly true. Yeah, it's like 226 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:29,480 Speaker 1: Star Trek world. Everything just comes right knows up to 227 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:31,559 Speaker 1: each other. Yeah. And also they would move in and 228 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:34,479 Speaker 1: essentially perfect circles. They wouldn't have these kind of elliptical 229 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:37,480 Speaker 1: orbitals because that's really hard to do with physical rods. 230 00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:40,679 Speaker 1: But you know, my favorite or y of all time 231 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:43,200 Speaker 1: is from the movie The Dark Crystal, and it's what 232 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:45,679 Speaker 1: Augra had. Now that of course was an or y 233 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:50,040 Speaker 1: for a fictional solar system, but was amazing that an 234 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:53,400 Speaker 1: enormous things spinning around all over the place. That that 235 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:56,480 Speaker 1: lady still creeps me out as an incredible movie that 236 00:12:56,559 --> 00:12:59,679 Speaker 1: everyone should go see. Uh oh, absolutely, yes, very much so. 237 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:06,720 Speaker 1: Plexis I can't okay science besides planetariums and uh and 238 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:09,160 Speaker 1: or planetaria if we want to talk about or reason 239 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:14,000 Speaker 1: in that sense, and these globes, we also have the 240 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:18,520 Speaker 1: concept of keeping track of astronomical phenomena in other ways 241 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:21,840 Speaker 1: that aren't again all immersive. All right, Well, part of 242 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:27,080 Speaker 1: the function of a planetarium is as an astronomical clock, right, 243 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:29,520 Speaker 1: like you were saying earlier, being able to to go 244 00:13:29,559 --> 00:13:31,280 Speaker 1: into the future, into the past and see what the 245 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:33,840 Speaker 1: stars looked like at any given point. Um, and you 246 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:39,079 Speaker 1: and Joe talked about a really famous one Antiquathera device 247 00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:42,600 Speaker 1: or Antiquithera mechanism, which is a some people would call 248 00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:46,920 Speaker 1: the oldest computer and analog computer. And yeah, on Forward 249 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:49,280 Speaker 1: Thinking we did a podcast. No I think I think 250 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:51,320 Speaker 1: you did it on tech Stuff. It was well days, 251 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:55,080 Speaker 1: that's right, that's right. See here's the things that I do. 252 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:57,679 Speaker 1: Too many shows for too many different different versions. Yes, 253 00:13:57,720 --> 00:13:59,760 Speaker 1: we did do the tech Stuff one so as a 254 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:03,240 Speaker 1: re minder, because obviously I need one. Uh. The Anticathera 255 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:07,520 Speaker 1: device was this, uh, this gadget that had been lost 256 00:14:07,640 --> 00:14:12,040 Speaker 1: in a shipwreck and recovered by sponge divers, and it 257 00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:14,000 Speaker 1: was recovered in very poor repair. It was all these 258 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,760 Speaker 1: different pieces and some of them were big chunks and 259 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:20,560 Speaker 1: some were smaller pieces. Uh. And eventually it took decades 260 00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:22,640 Speaker 1: to do this, but eventually we figured out that this 261 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:27,160 Speaker 1: was an astronomical computer. It was able to show where 262 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:29,800 Speaker 1: the position of the planets were in relation to the 263 00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:33,920 Speaker 1: Earth on any given date, including the position and phase 264 00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:36,360 Speaker 1: of the Moon and the position of the Sun. And 265 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:40,560 Speaker 1: you would turn a crank in order to adjust the 266 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:43,320 Speaker 1: dials so that you could change it to any date 267 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:47,320 Speaker 1: and see what what the that actual alignment happened to 268 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:49,400 Speaker 1: be on that given date. It was also very useful 269 00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:53,240 Speaker 1: for things like planning out specific events, because you could 270 00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:55,400 Speaker 1: do this and find out when there was going to 271 00:14:55,440 --> 00:14:58,640 Speaker 1: be an eclipse, for example, and an eclipse tended to 272 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:02,480 Speaker 1: be considered a bad men, so you might think, hey, 273 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:05,000 Speaker 1: this big festival, we want to have what happened to 274 00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:06,880 Speaker 1: fall on in the eclipse, So we're going to have 275 00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:11,120 Speaker 1: a special a special festival that's going to be three 276 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:13,560 Speaker 1: weeks earlier so that we don't have to worry about that, 277 00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:16,600 Speaker 1: or an Olympics event that there would be another example, 278 00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:20,680 Speaker 1: So it's really super cool. However, again this was something 279 00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:24,800 Speaker 1: that was relatively small. We're talking about like the size 280 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:27,840 Speaker 1: of a large book, and so you're looking at at 281 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:30,840 Speaker 1: these dials rather than again being immersed in the experience. 282 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:33,600 Speaker 1: But it was really useful for checking out, you know, 283 00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:36,400 Speaker 1: what a a a planetary alignment would be on any 284 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:40,440 Speaker 1: given date, because again they understood that the movements of 285 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:44,120 Speaker 1: the planets were regular and cyclical. Yeah, and so they 286 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:46,680 Speaker 1: were able to do this, and I don't want to 287 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:50,960 Speaker 1: minimize how difficult this was. They had to build exact 288 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:55,360 Speaker 1: gear ratios to represent the movement of all these planets 289 00:15:55,400 --> 00:16:00,200 Speaker 1: and sometimes hand machining those yeah, yeah, yeah, and dorble 290 00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:02,360 Speaker 1: amount of precision is required and sometimes you know, you 291 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:04,400 Speaker 1: would have to have things move backwards a little bit 292 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:07,720 Speaker 1: and then move forwards because from our perspective, that's the 293 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:11,440 Speaker 1: way things seem to be moving. So really really complicated stuff. 294 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:15,960 Speaker 1: Uh but still again, that's that's not quite an astronomical clock. 295 00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:19,240 Speaker 1: It's very similar to one. Once we looked at actual 296 00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:23,200 Speaker 1: astronomical clocks. Those look like clocks, but they happen to 297 00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:27,360 Speaker 1: have either a dial or sometimes it's a uh, you know, 298 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:31,600 Speaker 1: a little physical representation of what the planetary alignments are 299 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:33,880 Speaker 1: going to be or those phase of the moon or whatever. 300 00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:37,160 Speaker 1: These have been popular since the Middle Ages. There were 301 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 1: also some of those posh sky globes that could hypothetically 302 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:42,920 Speaker 1: predict the movement of celestial bodies, and Archimedes is said 303 00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:48,440 Speaker 1: to have had one background two right, so uh, probably 304 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: true lost stuff about that time period. Difficult for us 305 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:55,880 Speaker 1: to verify, but but I'm willing to believe it because 306 00:16:56,040 --> 00:17:00,200 Speaker 1: they are wicked smart. So uh yeah, yeah, again, we're 307 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: still talking about stuff that lets you look at it. 308 00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:06,119 Speaker 1: It doesn't surround you like the crazy um the globes 309 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:08,480 Speaker 1: where you would walk inside and take a seat. But 310 00:17:08,600 --> 00:17:13,520 Speaker 1: that's what leads us to the more modern day planetarium 311 00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:17,840 Speaker 1: that would require projection and not not like standing in 312 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:20,880 Speaker 1: the middle and projecting out by speaking more loudly. We're 313 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:25,959 Speaker 1: talking about light projection here. Okay, we've got some some 314 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:29,280 Speaker 1: planetarium talk ahead of us, but uh says here on 315 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:31,399 Speaker 1: my clock that it's time for us to take a 316 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:44,440 Speaker 1: quick break and we'll be right back. Okay, So projectors planetarium, 317 00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:47,960 Speaker 1: all right. The first one was installed in a roof 318 00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:51,639 Speaker 1: on a rooftop in Jenna, Germany. And I apologize, I 319 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:54,639 Speaker 1: suppose it would it be Jenna, Germany? The j is 320 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:58,480 Speaker 1: generally pronounced like a y. I did well, Jacob would 321 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:03,240 Speaker 1: be a cub Johan. I, I see where you're going, 322 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:06,719 Speaker 1: and I approve. I'm guessing it's Jenna. Any of our 323 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:10,080 Speaker 1: German listeners who would like to to reprimand me on 324 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:13,720 Speaker 1: my pronunciation feel free, because um, I should know better 325 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:16,480 Speaker 1: at this point. But it was an optical projector, so 326 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:19,560 Speaker 1: it actually used light and lenses to project images of 327 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:23,960 Speaker 1: stars on a curved surface the inside of a dome. Yeah, 328 00:18:24,359 --> 00:18:27,959 Speaker 1: so this dates all the way back to nineteen thirteen 329 00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:30,679 Speaker 1: for the earliest of the plans. That's when a man 330 00:18:30,760 --> 00:18:34,480 Speaker 1: named Oscar von Miller commissioned the device for the Deutschet 331 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:38,679 Speaker 1: Museum in Mind. So the idea to actually use projection 332 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:42,399 Speaker 1: was agreed upon in nineteen fourteen. There was this big 333 00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:46,919 Speaker 1: meeting and generally speaking, most people credit and engineer by 334 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:50,640 Speaker 1: the name of Walter Bausfeld who came up with this 335 00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:54,040 Speaker 1: idea to use a projector. He was working with the company, 336 00:18:54,119 --> 00:18:57,080 Speaker 1: a company called Carl Zeiss, which was an optics company 337 00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:00,240 Speaker 1: still is in fact, is that that's very true? Uh, 338 00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:03,720 Speaker 1: And they decided that they would use this kind of approach. 339 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:05,960 Speaker 1: They decided that they wanted to use something that was 340 00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:09,640 Speaker 1: fairly new, the idea of a new source of light 341 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:12,280 Speaker 1: for people at that time. Well, their their original idea 342 00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:16,520 Speaker 1: here was was to use those fancy newfangled light bulbs 343 00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:20,159 Speaker 1: as instead of a pin prick, instead of having a 344 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:22,480 Speaker 1: pin hole for for each light source, they wanted to 345 00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:25,240 Speaker 1: use a light bulb for each star. And they very 346 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:29,920 Speaker 1: quickly realized how complex and expensive and terrifying that would be, 347 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:32,720 Speaker 1: especially if you want to be able to move your 348 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:35,120 Speaker 1: field of vision right right. So if you had all 349 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:37,840 Speaker 1: these stars in fixed positions on the dome. How do 350 00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:40,000 Speaker 1: you move them if you want to if you want 351 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,360 Speaker 1: to move the entire ceiling and that's oh, that's not good. 352 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:45,199 Speaker 1: Can you imagine the heat generated from those old bulbs 353 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:47,880 Speaker 1: to all of those things. So this this one engineer, 354 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:52,200 Speaker 1: Vaulter Uh supposedly said, hey, why don't we put the 355 00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:54,760 Speaker 1: light in the middle and then shine it out on 356 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,680 Speaker 1: the on the on the inside, as opposed to poking 357 00:19:57,680 --> 00:19:59,800 Speaker 1: holes on the inside and putting these light bulbs through. 358 00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:04,600 Speaker 1: And people said, you're crazy, except for another engineer, and 359 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:07,359 Speaker 1: this one. This is a very interesting and tragic story. 360 00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:09,600 Speaker 1: There's actually a really good documentary that we'll talk about. 361 00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:13,120 Speaker 1: But there's an engineer, a scientist, an engineer named Rudolph 362 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:17,560 Speaker 1: Straubel who expanded upon Bauersfeld's suggestion. He actually said, wait, 363 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:19,560 Speaker 1: this is a great idea. We can use a projector, 364 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,520 Speaker 1: and not only can the projector show things like the 365 00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:25,120 Speaker 1: the position of planets, which was that that was kind 366 00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:27,320 Speaker 1: of the initial approach was, well, we can show the 367 00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:29,480 Speaker 1: planets this way, So no, we can actually show the 368 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:32,320 Speaker 1: stars this way too. We don't have to just rely 369 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:34,240 Speaker 1: on this as being a way of showing the planets, 370 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:37,480 Speaker 1: and they all began to work on this. Now, Strawble 371 00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:42,159 Speaker 1: would eventually leave the museum and this his position working 372 00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:46,359 Speaker 1: on this project because he refused to divorce his Jewish wife. 373 00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:50,200 Speaker 1: So this was the rise of the Nazis in Germany 374 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:54,320 Speaker 1: at the time. And UM there's a documentary called Planetarium 375 00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:58,800 Speaker 1: that really follows this, and the the general perspective on 376 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:03,840 Speaker 1: Planetarium is that straw was actually a major contributor to UH, 377 00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:07,000 Speaker 1: to this first planetarium, but his work was all but 378 00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:11,000 Speaker 1: erased by the Nazis, and then the Nazis attempts to 379 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:16,080 Speaker 1: erase it were then subsequently erased, partly because the the company, 380 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,600 Speaker 1: the Zeiss Company, got split into two companies after World 381 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:21,720 Speaker 1: War Two. Half of it was in the East Germany, 382 00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:24,639 Speaker 1: the other half in West Germany, and too for the 383 00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:28,600 Speaker 1: West Germany side to UH to talk about Strawble would 384 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:31,399 Speaker 1: have also been to admit that they had bowed to 385 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:37,760 Speaker 1: the Nazis UH demands, and so it was not politically UH, 386 00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:41,600 Speaker 1: let's see, what's the rightway prudent. It was not prudent 387 00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:45,120 Speaker 1: at that at that juncture, so to speak, to make 388 00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:47,880 Speaker 1: that admission. So if you're really interested to hear more 389 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:51,000 Speaker 1: about the uh, the drama behind that and also the 390 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:55,480 Speaker 1: truly the tragedy behind that story. Check out the documentary 391 00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,879 Speaker 1: Planetarium at Anyway, getting back to the planetarium itself, it 392 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:03,080 Speaker 1: took year of research and development before construction could begin, right. 393 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:07,080 Speaker 1: Also they were there was a war from from uh, yeah, 394 00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:09,199 Speaker 1: there was World War one, yeah, and then and then 395 00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:13,159 Speaker 1: the nineteen fourteen nine eighteen yeah, so that we had 396 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:16,440 Speaker 1: World War one going, so that that puts things on hold. 397 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:20,040 Speaker 1: Construction will begin in nineteen nineteen. It wouldn't be completed 398 00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:23,720 Speaker 1: until nineteen twenty three and was first shown on a 399 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:27,960 Speaker 1: rooftop in Jena, Germany, and then would eventually move to 400 00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:32,000 Speaker 1: its permanent home in the Deutsche Museum in nine and 401 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:36,520 Speaker 1: this had what was called a star ball. A star 402 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,040 Speaker 1: ball this is this is a perforated sphere that that 403 00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:41,720 Speaker 1: powerful light can be shown through up onto the dome 404 00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:45,600 Speaker 1: like like we've been talking about um by By around 405 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:48,119 Speaker 1: a decade later, domes like this would be installed in 406 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:52,880 Speaker 1: museums around the world, especially after affordability improvements were made 407 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:56,960 Speaker 1: to the Zeis device by Armand's fits in nineteen six. 408 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:00,000 Speaker 1: He was then the director of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphi. 409 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:04,240 Speaker 1: You and he His innovation was to um to scale 410 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:08,800 Speaker 1: it down from from a starball to a star dottecahedron. 411 00:23:09,119 --> 00:23:11,240 Speaker 1: Ah yeah, okay, that makes sense. You get a lot 412 00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:15,679 Speaker 1: more flat surfaces. Flat surfaces, it's easier to machine in 413 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:19,680 Speaker 1: those days. The machining a sphere is not easy. No, no, Um. 414 00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:21,920 Speaker 1: It was actually suggested to him by Einstein. The story 415 00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:27,720 Speaker 1: goes way to go Einstein. All right, So yeah, Um, 416 00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:30,560 Speaker 1: circ of the nineteen sixties, lenses would come and to 417 00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:33,360 Speaker 1: use to amplify the appearance of brighter stars to make 418 00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:36,879 Speaker 1: a more realistic starfield, and more expensive machines around the 419 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:40,800 Speaker 1: same time, multiple projectors, each with their own star plates. 420 00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:44,639 Speaker 1: Um would let you use lights of different brightnesses to 421 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:48,560 Speaker 1: project different magnitudes of stars. Gotcha. So yeah, it gets 422 00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,640 Speaker 1: a little tricky, like how do you represent the stars 423 00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:53,879 Speaker 1: accurately because some, of course when you look up in 424 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:56,400 Speaker 1: the sky, are much brighter than others. And there's only 425 00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:59,560 Speaker 1: so much you can do with with machining different different 426 00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:02,600 Speaker 1: apertures of pin pricks, right right, So yeah, it was 427 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:06,040 Speaker 1: pretty complicated stuff. So how do they work today? Well, 428 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:07,320 Speaker 1: if you were to go to the one in the 429 00:24:07,359 --> 00:24:11,280 Speaker 1: Deutsche museum. It's been updated several times over the course 430 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:13,600 Speaker 1: of its history, so it's not the same device that 431 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:18,119 Speaker 1: was installed back. It's had some eight million visitors or 432 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:21,680 Speaker 1: more over the intervening years. And now they use a 433 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:24,760 Speaker 1: projector that has thirty two different slides to create the 434 00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:27,680 Speaker 1: images of stars and planets on the curved surface of 435 00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:30,840 Speaker 1: the walls and ceiling. Now these slides have a fine 436 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:33,800 Speaker 1: pattern of holes that correspond to the actual position of 437 00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:37,840 Speaker 1: stars in the night sky above Germany. It's specific to that. Yeah, 438 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:40,239 Speaker 1: I mean it would be weird for them to have 439 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:42,959 Speaker 1: a representation of the sky above somewhere else. I mean, 440 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 1: this is this is, you know, above where the facility is. 441 00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:48,960 Speaker 1: Each slide is a pair of glass panes, you know, 442 00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:52,160 Speaker 1: like a slide you know, the jubilender a microscope or something. 443 00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:55,879 Speaker 1: Between these pines there's a thin layer of copper and 444 00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:58,760 Speaker 1: they punch holes in the copper. Now, the size of 445 00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:01,919 Speaker 1: the whole determines how bright the star is going to be, right, 446 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:03,680 Speaker 1: So if you make a tiny hole, it's going to 447 00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,160 Speaker 1: be a relatively faint star. If you make a larger hole, 448 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,240 Speaker 1: it's gonna be a brighter star. The lenses you used 449 00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:12,720 Speaker 1: to help focus that light so that it's the right size, 450 00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:16,400 Speaker 1: so you've got the right brightness and size. Yep. Yeah, 451 00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:18,000 Speaker 1: you don't want to have just this kind of fuzzy 452 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:22,160 Speaker 1: blurry effect. Uh. So generally speaking, you got a lamp 453 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:25,280 Speaker 1: that's what's providing the back light, and you have special 454 00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:28,560 Speaker 1: projectors for the sun, Moon, the planets, and the Milky 455 00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:30,800 Speaker 1: Way to complete the picture. So this is a multi 456 00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:35,160 Speaker 1: projector set up. Now, the original structure relied on gears 457 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:38,959 Speaker 1: to turn the projectors precisely to mimic celestial movements, so 458 00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:42,679 Speaker 1: you would actually have someone manually turning something. We have 459 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:46,439 Speaker 1: sense upgraded now it's electric motors that do this. Uh. 460 00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:49,080 Speaker 1: And again you have the gear ratios worked out so 461 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:52,560 Speaker 1: that they mimic the actual movements. So uh, you know, 462 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:54,760 Speaker 1: you could just have everything turning, but of course that 463 00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:57,679 Speaker 1: wouldn't be accurate to what we actually see in nature. 464 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,640 Speaker 1: You have to be a little more specific so that 465 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,840 Speaker 1: you know when Mars is going past your vision, it's 466 00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:07,160 Speaker 1: doing so at the right speed relative to the other 467 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:11,359 Speaker 1: other sites in the sky. So the neat thing about 468 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,760 Speaker 1: this is that you can actually obviously speed things up 469 00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,200 Speaker 1: or slow things down. So you could sit there and say, 470 00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:21,240 Speaker 1: all right, here's what the path of Mars looks like 471 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,960 Speaker 1: over the course of a month, and you could show 472 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:26,360 Speaker 1: it in in uh sped up time, so you don't 473 00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:28,080 Speaker 1: actually have to sit there for a month to see 474 00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:30,480 Speaker 1: it happen, right, Or you can reverse it so that 475 00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:32,960 Speaker 1: you can say, here's what Mars did last month, right, 476 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:35,760 Speaker 1: And then of course that sets time backward. And then, 477 00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:38,480 Speaker 1: because we learned that from Superman, right, if you spend 478 00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,520 Speaker 1: the world backwards, then obviously time reverses. It's okay, they 479 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:43,520 Speaker 1: all have way back machines in turns, right, so they 480 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:45,920 Speaker 1: all everything works out in the end. By the time 481 00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:47,960 Speaker 1: you leave, everything's right back to where was, so you 482 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,280 Speaker 1: don't have to mess with your watch. That's that's really smart. 483 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:55,640 Speaker 1: Now about six of all planetariums still use projectors like this. 484 00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:59,800 Speaker 1: I get this particular figure from the planetarium in Hilo, 485 00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:03,200 Speaker 1: white E, a lovely place to visit, by the way, 486 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:07,960 Speaker 1: So they use standard video special mechanical projectors to create 487 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,200 Speaker 1: those images of the night sky. But beginning in the 488 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:13,680 Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, some planetariums began to experiment with going digital 489 00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,080 Speaker 1: rather than analog. It wouldn't be until the nineteen nineties 490 00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:21,000 Speaker 1: that planetariums could actually experiment with full dome animated content. 491 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:25,000 Speaker 1: Uh now, full dome animated content. This is used for 492 00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,560 Speaker 1: lots of stuff. It's not just used for planetariums. For example, 493 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:31,480 Speaker 1: there are virtual environments that use domes to represent things 494 00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:37,040 Speaker 1: like say the sky for a a jet simulator. So 495 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:39,920 Speaker 1: these domes allow you to have this amazing field of 496 00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:42,880 Speaker 1: view that you can then project some sort of virtual 497 00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:46,639 Speaker 1: environment on, and that's more effective than say being in 498 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:50,440 Speaker 1: a flat room with corners and flat surfaces. That doesn't 499 00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:56,120 Speaker 1: usually convey as realistic and experience. So for planetariums it's 500 00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:58,680 Speaker 1: great because it can mimic the night sky very well. 501 00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:02,600 Speaker 1: Uh Now, this this full dome approach meant that you 502 00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:06,399 Speaker 1: could have some really cool effects, but it also comes 503 00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:09,760 Speaker 1: with some challenges. It's not uh always easy to do. 504 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:13,240 Speaker 1: If you're using a multiprojector approach, for example, you have 505 00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:15,080 Speaker 1: to make sure that all of the edges are going 506 00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:16,840 Speaker 1: to line up with each other so that you don't 507 00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:20,200 Speaker 1: have any kind of wackiness in between, right exactly. Let's so, 508 00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:22,919 Speaker 1: let's say that you have a projector that is a 509 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,320 Speaker 1: certain like if you look at the dome as kind 510 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:27,840 Speaker 1: of a a pie. So you think of a slice 511 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:30,919 Speaker 1: of that pie. One projector is responsible for that slice, 512 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:33,560 Speaker 1: the next projector is responsible for the slice next to that. 513 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:36,760 Speaker 1: If those two projectors are out of alignment, then you're 514 00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:38,920 Speaker 1: gonna have some stars that are overlapping each other. And 515 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:41,400 Speaker 1: then you have this additive property of light. You know, 516 00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:43,960 Speaker 1: you have light from two different sources hitting the same 517 00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:46,720 Speaker 1: physical space, and it's gonna be blurry, it's gonna be 518 00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:49,320 Speaker 1: too bright, it's not going to represent the actual stars. 519 00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:51,760 Speaker 1: So this is something that has to be very carefully 520 00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:54,800 Speaker 1: calibrated every single time any maintenance is done on it. 521 00:28:55,080 --> 00:28:57,840 Speaker 1: So this is true for all planetariums. It's not just 522 00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,240 Speaker 1: for the ones that are multiprojector, but multi projector in particular. 523 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:04,800 Speaker 1: You have to make these considerations. Yeah, they generally still 524 00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:07,520 Speaker 1: call it a star ball. By the way, this kind 525 00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:11,680 Speaker 1: of a spherical construction into which all of these projectors 526 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:14,240 Speaker 1: are are sat is still called a star ball. I 527 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:16,760 Speaker 1: think starball is a really great word. Starball just I mean, 528 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:19,440 Speaker 1: it sounds like something out of Cartamari Domonty to me, 529 00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:20,920 Speaker 1: which I think is why I'm so fond of it. 530 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,920 Speaker 1: I was I was thinking it sounds like a like 531 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:26,480 Speaker 1: like a John Carpenter movie, but maybe I'm thinking Starman. 532 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:30,440 Speaker 1: We've got more about how planetariums work, but before we 533 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:40,920 Speaker 1: get to that, let's take another quick break. So if 534 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:43,600 Speaker 1: you wanna have a planetarium, one of the concerns you 535 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:45,640 Speaker 1: have is that you wanted to be really dark. You 536 00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:47,680 Speaker 1: don't want to have any kind of other light bleeding 537 00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,280 Speaker 1: into it because that's going to interrupt the actual view 538 00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,200 Speaker 1: that you want. Um Also, you know, you could go 539 00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:56,880 Speaker 1: with a single projector, which would be at the center 540 00:29:57,160 --> 00:30:00,680 Speaker 1: of the planetarium, so you've got a injector that's right 541 00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,240 Speaker 1: in the very middle. Now, one thing that you have 542 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:07,360 Speaker 1: to keep in mind, there's a drawback there. You can't 543 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:10,200 Speaker 1: stand in the middle because that's where the actual projector is. 544 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,000 Speaker 1: These things, by the way, cost lots of money, you know, 545 00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:16,760 Speaker 1: sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. So generally speaking, if 546 00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:19,120 Speaker 1: you're in a planetarium that has a single projector, there 547 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:21,280 Speaker 1: tends to be like railings and things like that so 548 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:23,600 Speaker 1: that you can't get too close and mess with it. 549 00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:27,920 Speaker 1: I remember standing right next to one for a commercial 550 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,320 Speaker 1: for a science fiction convention back when I was thirteen 551 00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:33,360 Speaker 1: years old, and I would never been more terrified in 552 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:35,280 Speaker 1: my life that I was going to end up bankrupting 553 00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:39,960 Speaker 1: my parents by by accidentally falling against this planetarium projector. 554 00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:43,480 Speaker 1: But yeah, it's it's uh, it's it's usually blocked off. 555 00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:45,680 Speaker 1: It takes up that center space. So one thing you've 556 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:47,960 Speaker 1: got to keep in mind is that takes up potential 557 00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,760 Speaker 1: place for people to sit. However, sitting in the center 558 00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:55,160 Speaker 1: of a planetarium is rarely the best seat, so usually 559 00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:57,600 Speaker 1: you just you just make use of the outer edge 560 00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:00,320 Speaker 1: as much as you possibly can. But with that center 561 00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:03,360 Speaker 1: single projector, you also don't have to worry about bleeding 562 00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:06,800 Speaker 1: into other projectors. Assuming you've got one that's the master 563 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:10,120 Speaker 1: projector that handles everything including the planets, the Sun, the moon, 564 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:12,760 Speaker 1: all that stuff, you're good to go. You don't have 565 00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:16,680 Speaker 1: to worry about that those other issues of are these 566 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:19,640 Speaker 1: things perfectly aligned, because everything should be fine assuming that 567 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:22,680 Speaker 1: the projector itself is in good working order. The multi 568 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:25,200 Speaker 1: projector set ups that that that I was talking about 569 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:28,040 Speaker 1: a second ago are are in those starballs. But I 570 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:30,320 Speaker 1: but it sounds like Jonathan, you're talking about a a 571 00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:32,800 Speaker 1: different kind of projector set up. Yeah, there's actually there 572 00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:34,360 Speaker 1: are different ways you can do this. You can have 573 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:37,120 Speaker 1: the multiprojector all in the center, which is similar to 574 00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:40,120 Speaker 1: that single projector I was just talking about, which may 575 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,160 Speaker 1: or may not have multiple lenses on it. In fact, 576 00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:45,880 Speaker 1: it usually does have multiple lenses on it, so it 577 00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:48,760 Speaker 1: can look a lot like the multi projector set up. 578 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,120 Speaker 1: But there are other multi projector setups where it leaves 579 00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:53,200 Speaker 1: the center completely clear. And the way they do that 580 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:56,720 Speaker 1: is they set the projectors up along the inside perimeter 581 00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:59,760 Speaker 1: of this dome and they use mirrors to reflect the 582 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:02,240 Speaker 1: lie from the projectors so that it hits the precise 583 00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:04,360 Speaker 1: spots on the inside of the dome, so you get 584 00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:07,880 Speaker 1: that starry night appearance. So yeah, you know, they're multiple. 585 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:10,680 Speaker 1: The nice thing is is that once you know the 586 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,680 Speaker 1: actual movement of the celestial bodies and you're able to 587 00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:18,800 Speaker 1: represent them accurately, there are multiple ways to actually achieve that. 588 00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:21,440 Speaker 1: And that's the cool thing is that we've seen lots 589 00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:24,640 Speaker 1: of different approaches to this particular problem and all of 590 00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:27,240 Speaker 1: them work. They just work in different ways, which is 591 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:30,000 Speaker 1: pretty awesome. It just shows the ingenuity of people when 592 00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:31,920 Speaker 1: it comes to I want to represent this thing that's 593 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:34,200 Speaker 1: in nature, how do I do that? And people come 594 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,120 Speaker 1: up with completely different ideas that all work the uh 595 00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:40,720 Speaker 1: you know, equally well, just in different ways. So we 596 00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:43,640 Speaker 1: actually have we have a couple of planetariums here in 597 00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:46,800 Speaker 1: Atlanta that uh you know. I think fern Bank has one, 598 00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:50,720 Speaker 1: but Emory also has one, and uh, Emory's is interesting 599 00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:53,680 Speaker 1: for a couple of different reasons. One is that it 600 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,880 Speaker 1: h it's a classroom as well as a planetarium, so 601 00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:00,600 Speaker 1: it can actually double up, and in fact, the planetarium 602 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:02,840 Speaker 1: stuff can fade off into the background so that it 603 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:05,400 Speaker 1: can just be a regular schoolroom. By by by fade off, 604 00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:07,840 Speaker 1: you mean you mean sink into the floor like a 605 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:11,120 Speaker 1: super villain layer. Apparently in Atlanta we have this thing 606 00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:15,720 Speaker 1: about incredible equipment sinking into the floor. It's it's the 607 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:19,280 Speaker 1: planetarium at Emory. It's the Mighty mo Oregan over at 608 00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:21,280 Speaker 1: the Fox Theater. Why don't why don't we have this 609 00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:23,920 Speaker 1: in the office anywhere? Yeah, you know, I think Ben 610 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,160 Speaker 1: sunk into the floor once, but I'm not sure that 611 00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:29,920 Speaker 1: anyone besides me saw it, so I could just be crazy, 612 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:32,360 Speaker 1: but I don't know. Sometimes he likes to make me 613 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,160 Speaker 1: think that. The other reason why I wanted to bring 614 00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:37,920 Speaker 1: it up is because the planetarium itself has a projector 615 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:42,360 Speaker 1: called the Zeiss Skymaster z KP three, which is cool 616 00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:45,680 Speaker 1: because it's it's Yeah, it's from the same company that 617 00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:50,120 Speaker 1: made the very first planetarium projector, so again they're still 618 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:52,719 Speaker 1: in business. They're still making that. This one was installed, 619 00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,160 Speaker 1: I believe in two thousand two, so it wasn't wasn't 620 00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:59,440 Speaker 1: that long ago. Now, the one at Emory is computer controlled. 621 00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:01,800 Speaker 1: It's got a key board for manual input and has 622 00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:05,840 Speaker 1: thirty nine different projecting lenses of different sizes that create 623 00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,480 Speaker 1: the stars, planets, and other celestial bodies on the inner 624 00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:11,000 Speaker 1: surface of the dome, and can project more than seven 625 00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:15,680 Speaker 1: thousand individual stars, plus star clusters, nebula galaxies, the Milky Way, 626 00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:19,120 Speaker 1: the planet's sun, the Moon, and it can superimpose lines 627 00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:23,840 Speaker 1: between stars to illustrate constellations. So if you hear about 628 00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:27,600 Speaker 1: these constellations and you think I just just looks like 629 00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:30,759 Speaker 1: a cluster of stars. I don't, I don't get it, 630 00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:35,960 Speaker 1: then they can actually show the connections that U The 631 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:38,920 Speaker 1: inspired the imaginations of people thousands of years ago to 632 00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:43,680 Speaker 1: call the stars wacky things like O Ryan. Yeah, I 633 00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:46,200 Speaker 1: always had trouble with those. The only one I could 634 00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:47,880 Speaker 1: ever pick out was a Ryan because I could pick 635 00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:51,320 Speaker 1: out a Ryan's belt. But otherwise I was I was hopeless. 636 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:52,440 Speaker 1: I was. I was a whiz at it when I 637 00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:55,399 Speaker 1: was a kid. I've had a really big astronomy phase. Yeah, 638 00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:57,680 Speaker 1: I wish I had taken a course in astronomy. I 639 00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:00,239 Speaker 1: never did. Uh. The one at Emory also usually shows 640 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:03,200 Speaker 1: the sky over Atlanta. Again, no big surprise, but because 641 00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:05,480 Speaker 1: it is a computer system, it's one of those that 642 00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,200 Speaker 1: can show you the sky over any given point on 643 00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:10,839 Speaker 1: the art at any given time, so you can set 644 00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:14,040 Speaker 1: it for whenever now. Um. The other cool thing about 645 00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:17,000 Speaker 1: is that it's connected to a telescope that's on the 646 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:20,160 Speaker 1: building's rooftop, and they have a direct video feed from 647 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:23,480 Speaker 1: the telescope to the planetarium, So for astronomical events you 648 00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:26,080 Speaker 1: can go and you know, yeah, just watch it, and 649 00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:28,720 Speaker 1: just watch it from on the ceiling of this planetarium, 650 00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:31,280 Speaker 1: which is you know, you could see a live event. 651 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:33,960 Speaker 1: They they've hosted several live events there, not all of 652 00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:37,240 Speaker 1: them were some that you could watch through the telescope. Like, uh, 653 00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:41,040 Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that the Mars rover landing you probably 654 00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:43,960 Speaker 1: couldn't see thither the telescope. I cannot imagine that would 655 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:47,240 Speaker 1: be possible. Now, but but they do show some interesting 656 00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:51,200 Speaker 1: feeds from various sources. So these days, I mean, as 657 00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,239 Speaker 1: impressive as that planetarium is and as proud as I 658 00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:56,600 Speaker 1: am as a as a native at Lantin, that's here. 659 00:35:57,239 --> 00:36:01,560 Speaker 1: Uh there are others that are even more sophisticated. We're 660 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:05,560 Speaker 1: talking four K or eight K projectors. So you know, 661 00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:08,759 Speaker 1: think of the general rule of thumb, and granted it's 662 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,280 Speaker 1: a rough rule of thumb is four K means four 663 00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:15,759 Speaker 1: times the the resolution of say a ten eight high 664 00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:19,160 Speaker 1: definition television. That that's when you get into ultra high definition. Yeah, 665 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,480 Speaker 1: this is this is way more high def than your 666 00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:25,440 Speaker 1: local cinema. Yeah, eight K even more so. Uh yeah, 667 00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:27,319 Speaker 1: even if you have a four K cinema near you, 668 00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:30,120 Speaker 1: eight K twice as good relations when you get down 669 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:33,560 Speaker 1: to it. Again, that's very rough. I mean, anyone who's 670 00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:36,880 Speaker 1: a a true video file is cringing when I say this. 671 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:40,080 Speaker 1: But yeah, you can go and see planetariums use eight 672 00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:42,680 Speaker 1: K projectors. Some of them have full three D effects 673 00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:44,960 Speaker 1: at six D frames per second, so you can actually 674 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,840 Speaker 1: feel like you're floating through space. They can take you 675 00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:50,840 Speaker 1: on on journeys all the way around the the Solar 676 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:54,840 Speaker 1: System and the galaxy. You've got data feeds from all over, 677 00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,919 Speaker 1: like including space probes. It's pretty incredible. So yeah, yeah, 678 00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:00,520 Speaker 1: some of these things can show over nine and stars 679 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,399 Speaker 1: that ago, go backward and forward ten thousand years into 680 00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:06,600 Speaker 1: the past and future, um and and right take you 681 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:10,080 Speaker 1: so far beyond Earth to to show any kind of 682 00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:13,240 Speaker 1: any kind of data that we have anywhere in the universe. 683 00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:17,280 Speaker 1: Um and you can you can composite the astronomer's data 684 00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:20,880 Speaker 1: and and artists composits. Yeah, it's fantastic. I love the 685 00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:23,480 Speaker 1: idea of also being able to see things like here's 686 00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:25,239 Speaker 1: what the Knights Sky would look like if you were 687 00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:28,760 Speaker 1: on Mars. I mean, that's incredible stuff that we clearly 688 00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:32,040 Speaker 1: most of us are not going to ever have the 689 00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:34,840 Speaker 1: chance of looking at the stars from the surface of 690 00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:37,719 Speaker 1: another planet, or to go into the center of our 691 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:40,000 Speaker 1: galaxy and check out the black hole there. Yeah. I 692 00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:43,680 Speaker 1: had plans and they got canceled. The other couple that 693 00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:45,799 Speaker 1: was gonna go with us something came up, and when 694 00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:48,320 Speaker 1: that happened. Yeah, So that's the nice thing about the 695 00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:51,239 Speaker 1: planetariums is they give us this opportunity to journey to 696 00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:55,080 Speaker 1: places we physically could not get to and really understand 697 00:37:55,160 --> 00:38:00,080 Speaker 1: more about our galaxy and the way everything seems to 698 00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:02,879 Speaker 1: work in relation to each other based upon our knowledge now. 699 00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:05,840 Speaker 1: And the other nice thing about planetariums is that these 700 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:10,720 Speaker 1: facilities update as our understanding grows, So there are times 701 00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:14,239 Speaker 1: when we might learn something that ends up affecting the 702 00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:17,239 Speaker 1: way a planetarium is displaying the night sky, and it's 703 00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:21,640 Speaker 1: pretty easy with digital projection to fix it and relatively yeah, 704 00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:23,880 Speaker 1: and so you might even be able to watch something 705 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:27,080 Speaker 1: like here's what a supernova looks like. And you know, 706 00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:30,479 Speaker 1: there there have been events in the past where they've 707 00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:33,840 Speaker 1: been amazing astronomical events, but many of them happened before 708 00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,080 Speaker 1: most of us were alive, so it'd be really cool 709 00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:40,200 Speaker 1: to be able to see those kind of representations things 710 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:44,520 Speaker 1: like uh Hallie's comment as another good example, or maybe 711 00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:46,640 Speaker 1: if you wanted to see what it would look like 712 00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:48,960 Speaker 1: with some of the other famous comments that have gone by, 713 00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:51,520 Speaker 1: but you never got a chance when they actually happened, 714 00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:53,760 Speaker 1: maybe it was clowney that day, or maybe you weren't 715 00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:56,840 Speaker 1: born yet. It would give you the opportunity. So super 716 00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:00,759 Speaker 1: cool stuff. Um really interesting again to look into it, 717 00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:04,280 Speaker 1: and the fact that so many different people have created 718 00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:08,960 Speaker 1: similar but different approaches for this same purpose is really cool. 719 00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:11,360 Speaker 1: I mean it's it's it's rare when we talk about 720 00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:14,880 Speaker 1: a technology where there are all these multiple pathways that 721 00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,000 Speaker 1: get to the same destination. Usually we talk about convergence, 722 00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:22,000 Speaker 1: where you know, competing technologies start to fall away until 723 00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:26,000 Speaker 1: you have a clear front runner or maybe two possible ones. 724 00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:28,799 Speaker 1: But with this there are lots of different ways. Oh yeah, 725 00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:32,239 Speaker 1: and all of these interactions with multiple disciplines of of 726 00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:35,480 Speaker 1: bringing together the knowledge that we have been gathering over 727 00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:38,719 Speaker 1: the centuries about the universe around us, along with the 728 00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:42,560 Speaker 1: optics fields that have let us use these technologies to 729 00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:46,719 Speaker 1: to project stuff onto a ceiling. That wraps up this 730 00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:50,239 Speaker 1: classic episode of tech Stuff How planetariums work. Hope you 731 00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:52,840 Speaker 1: enjoyed it. If you have any suggestions for topics I 732 00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:55,680 Speaker 1: should cover in future episodes of tech Stuff, or perhaps 733 00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:59,080 Speaker 1: a topic that needs an update, maybe you just want 734 00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:01,120 Speaker 1: to say hi, the best way to reach me is 735 00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:04,400 Speaker 1: over on Twitter. The handle we use is tech stuff 736 00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:07,280 Speaker 1: H s W and I'll tell it to you again 737 00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:16,880 Speaker 1: really soon. Yeah. Tech Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. 738 00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:19,960 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i 739 00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:23,279 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to 740 00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:24,240 Speaker 1: your favorite shows,