GOTO INC is proud to introduce the Model CHIRON III - a totally new opto-mechanical projector designed for 16-30 meter diameter HYBRID planetariums. Carrying on in the tradition of the original CHIRON and CHIRON II machines, this projector has a beautiful sky, quick and accurate motions, and solid engineering designed to deliver many decades of trouble-free use.

But many things have changed with the new CHIRON III. First of all, it is much, much smaller than earlier large-dome projectors. Its starball is only 480mm (less than 19 inches) in diameter! The new greatly reduced size makes a much smaller visual profile at the center of the room, and the CHIRON III may also be mounted on a telescoping lift so that little or no blocked sight lines will exist for anyone in the theater!

Yet the high-efficiency LED light sources illuminate the stars brighter, smaller, and more realistically than ever before. Scintillation of all stars in the sky adds to that realism, as do 9 variable stars and individual switching of 27 bright stars to avoid bright star images from moving through fulldome images. Of course GOTO's famous digital shutters allow control of horizon cutoffs at any angle and to any degree, thereby producing star-free panoramas when desired, and precise horizon cutoffs in tilted as well as horizontal domes.

Perhaps the most important innovation which GOTO INC introduces with the CHIRON III is the planetarium industry's first and only full-color starfield! Rather than only coloring a few dozen stars, as other planetarium projectors do, the CHIRON III offers the option of having every one of the 9,500 stars exhibit realistic color temperatures. From starting at blues and stepping through whites, yellows, oranges, and down to red, many subtle gradations of color closely match the actual colors of stars.

Because the human eye generally doesn't see color below certain brightness levels, the effect is very realistic in normal use, but this feature, combined with the CHIRON III's high brightness, allows the operator to brighten the sky to reveal more of the sky's true colors. Or, the operator can choose to illuminate only the red stars, or only the blue, yellow, orange, or white stars for educational purposes. Adding color to a pure, pristine opto-mechanical sky had never been done before, until the CHIRON III.

CHIRON III is one of the new designed-for-HYBRID opto-mechanical projectors. That means it is part of a complete GOTO HYBRID Planetarium®, the world's first and best full HYBRID. All GOTO HYBRIDS feature full synchronization of moving stars and background fulldome animations, and include an ergonomically-designed, manual control console which makes live programming not only beautiful, colorful, and dynamic, but also easy for the operator to learn and control in real time.

Many other new HYBRID features also await CHIRON III users, such as a totally new Plus-V projector which brings even more realism to sunsets, eclipses, comets, meteors, spacecraft, and more.

Please take a more comprehensive look at the CHIRON III and its specifications by clicking on the .pdf file below. Then please contact GOTO to learn more about how the CHIRON III can fit into your planetarium planning.