Upgraded Planetarium to open in February

In the 1960s and 1970s, NASA astronauts flew across the country to train at UNC’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.

But Tuesday morning, it was a group of third graders that got a sneak peek of the planetarium’s $1.5 million upgrade.

“From the giggles and smiles, I think they enjoyed it,” said Karen Kornegay, the planetarium’s marketing manager.

The planetarium is closed this month for the installation of a fulldome digital video projection system. It will re-open Feb. 5 as the GlaxoSmithKline Fulldome Theater.

The upgrade will make Fulldome Theater one of the largest fulldome theaters in the United States — “world-class planetarium status,” as Kornegay called it.

Inviting elementary school students to preview the new GlaxoSmithKline-funded projection system highlights the pharmaceutical company’s history of supporting science education at Morehead Planetarium, Kornegay said. The company has previously supported a number of camps, shows and demonstrations at Morehead.

The new system uses two projectors at opposite ends of the planetarium, which each cover half of the dome. Kornegay said the previous technology — a clunky and obtrusive Zeiss Model VI Star Projector that has been around for roughly 40 years — required 300 or 400 additional pieces of equipment working together for multimedia presentations. All of their functions are rolled into the single fulldome technology.

That disjointed approach to planetarium presentations left Morehead unable to lease out its work. (The hundred-of-pieces-of-equipment style of presentation is not widely used by other planetariums.) But the fulldome system will allow Morehead to both screen shows from other planetariums and lease out its own productions for profit.

“It’s the biggest technological advance we’ve had, possibly in the planetarium’s history,” Kornegay said.

Originally, the conversion was to go hand-to-hand with a full building renovation to Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, but budget cuts have put those plans on hold.

Morehead Planetarium was built in 1949 with a single gift from John Motley Morehead III that today would be equivalent to about $23 million.

Kornegay said that now Morehead’s budget comes — roughly equally — from state appropriations, revenue from ticket sales and the gift shop, and grants and private gifts.

“We couldn’t do this without private support,” she added.



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.