Night Sky Ceilings

Digitizing the night sky … inside the UW's planetarium

It’s a quiet, sunny summer afternoon at the University of Washington’s physics-astronomy complex. But inside the hushed, empty auditorium building, Jake VanderPlas has turned off the lights and shut us inside the recently renovated planetarium .

Jake’s a friend and a fellow UW grad student ( a 5th-year Ph.D. candidate in astronomy ) who studies, among other cool things, the underlying structure of the universe. Today, though, he’s showing off the nifty digital upgrades that make the formerly old-school projector room a showcase of how to reach out to the public using off-the-shelf computing technology.

The opto-mechanical Minolta projector that still takes up a big chunk of the round, carpeted dome of a room is basically a fancy device for splaying the ceiling with the white dots familiar to generations of school kids on field trips.

But in the early 2000s, a group of grad students invested in a set of 640 by 480 projectors to supplement the old Minolta, adding the ability to place images on the wall.

Then two years ago, grad student Phil Rosenfield and UW Prof. Andrew Connolly helped to secure a $20,000 grant from Microsoft to help the planetarium go fully digital; free labor and other support helped to help keep the total conversion to about $40,000. A brand-new planetarium would have run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, VanderPlas says.

With six desktop computers tied to six projectors that run Microsoft Research’s Worldwide Telescope software (which is free for the public to download), a seventh desktop is run by an Xbox controller that allows guides such as VanderPlas to zoom in and out of our solar system, and to scroll across the universe (or at least as much of the known universe as possible). The half-a-dozen projected images are stitched together on the ceiling for a “wow!” effect that’s invaluable, VanderPlas says, for learning.

“The new wave of digital planetariums allows students to experience the universe interactively in ways that haven’t been possible before,” he says. “The sort of immersion that, in the past, was only possible with a pre-rendered movie can now be controlled in real time.”

“Star bulbs” that showed off the constellations were cool — but seeing images such as Hubble’s “deep space field”  or the Horsehead Nebula on a small movie screen over your head is even cooler, especially when that image is 8-million pixels strong.

Cloud b Twilight Constellation Night Light, Sea Turtle | dailywebday ...

The winner of several industry awards, including the Editor’s Choice blue ribbon from Baby Talk, each Twilight Turtle is individually hand painted for a unique, artful look that complements any nursery or children’s room. Plush and soft, with a sturdy plastic shell, this nightlight is best placed on the floor in the center of the room, where it projects a starry night sky onto the ceiling and walls. For interactive fun, parents can also sit with their children and identify and describe the features of eight major constellations, including the Big Dipper and the Big Bear, with the help of the beautifully illustrated Star Guide. The Twilight Turtle also includes a warm-hearted story about how Twilight Turtle, separated from his father, uses the constellations to find his way home.

User-Friendly Operation Simply pressing the button on the turtle’s shell ignites the stars and keeps them glowing for a full 45 minutes–just enough time for most children to drift into sleep. At this point, the Twilight Turtle automatically shuts off to preserve battery life. Another push of the button reactivates the projection. In addition, the easy selection of the three soothing color choices allows your child not only to learn to identify different colors, but also to truly experience them as well. Amber radiates warmth and peace; green creates a healing and renewing atmosphere; and blue helps calm the senses. The soft, illuminating glow the Twilight Turtle emits also serves as a nightlight that makes the darkness less frightening.

Makes a Great Gift Cloud b, the baby sleep specialist, was established by two new mothers with the philosophy that every baby deserves a sound night’s sleep for healthy development. That’s why all of Cloud b’s products are developed in consultation with an advisory board of pediatricians and sleep specialists with a single focus: to achieve a better, safer sleep for baby.

The Florida night sky, a guide to observing from dusk till dawn

A child's introduction to the night sky, the story of the stars, planets, and constellations, and how you can find them in the sky

Addison-Wesley earth science

Indianapolis Monthly

Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non-western cultures