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December 13, 2018 / News

Anjo chooses GOTO CHIRON III HYBRID with RSA Cosmos SkyExplorer to follow previous GOTO GM II

GOTO INC (President Nobutaka Goto, Fuchu-shi, Tokyo) delivered a special type of CHIRON III Hybrid Planetarium to Anjo City Cultural Center (Lifelong Learning Department Manager Satoru Omi, Anjo City, Aichi Prefecture). This opto-mechanical planetarium “CHIRON III” has an original specification for Anjo City, with a new function to freely adjust the stars’ brightness by layers so that the sky can be seen as naturally as possible, and to reproduce a remarkable feeling of depth to the sky. The system was open to the public on Saturday, November 17, 2018, as a “Hybrid Planetarium” which uses SkyExplorer as a fulldome video system synchronized with the opto-mechanical planetarium, and utilizes the latest 4K projectors, featuring laser phosphor light sources.

Details of the renewal

Anjo City Cultural Center opened in 1981 as a facility with an opto-mechanical planetarium, the GM II (manufactured by GOTO INC) in a horizontal 15 m diameter dome. In this renewal, the GM II was replaced with the special-specification "CHIRON III Hybrid" combining the beautiful natural starry sky feeling with the fulldome video image giving a true impression of presence.
In addition, the seats and the shape of the dome have been renewed, completely refurbishing the planetarium interior, so that it has been transformed into a dome space where you can appreciate the sky more comfortably.

Special-specification "CHIRON III"
The "CHIRON III" delivered to Anjo is a special-specification projector fully dedicated to the appearance of the starry sky. The sky of this CHIRON III was customized to the concept of " naturally appearing stars without limit,” in response to the requests of Anjo.

Milky Way is drawn with the sharp, pinpoint images of approximately 100 million minor stars, in addition to over 300 nebulae and star clusters, over 2,000 dark nebulae, and about 9,500 of the fixed, naked eye stars. Unique colors of about 300 stars brighter than 3.5 magnitude are faithfully reproduced. In addition, a new variable star magnitude function and various dimming functions can freely adjust the magnitude range of stars shown from 3.5 mag to the 6.5 mag star. This allows showing the sky from various environments such as in city streets, mountains without light pollution, space etc. to reproduce the starry sky as desired in any situation including air and light pollution and weather.

Makoto Kasahara, GOTO INC’s R & D leader, says,"Recent opto-mechanical planetariums have high brightness and sometimes there was an unnaturalness that made dim stars too visible in the actual starry sky. By adjusting the number of visible stars correctly, the shape of constellations in the real sky is clearly reproduced. This unique method is obtained from further development of the CHIRON III which was originally released in 2014. By applying optical fiber light guiding technology and software control of LED light sources, we realized an opto-mechanical planetarium that can meet Anjo City's request."

Fulldome video system with 4K resolution
Anjo’s fulldome video system is equipped with proprietary GOTO lenses designed for Sony's latest 4K projectors. These projectors utilize laser-excited phosphor as their light source and project seamless, high definition video onto the entire sky of the dome.
The video system is from RSA Cosmos (headquarters France). SkyExplorer software is used as the computer graphics engine. While similar hybridizations have been done in other countries, this is the first time in Japan that the RSA Cosmos fulldome system has been hybridized and synchronized with a GOTO opto-mechanical projector.
Supplementing the optical starry sky, the fulldome system can project constellation pictures, constellation lines, as well as the cityscape of Anjo city, landscapes, space images, etc. on the dome. In addition, it can project volumetrically correct representations of galaxies with more than 150 billion stars, 50,000 open clusters, 117,000 HII regions and all known globular clusters as individual models using its digital planetarium function.

Anjo city’s attractive dome space
In this equipment renewal, an original “hypersphere” dome shape was introduced at Anjo city. This shape combines the merit of both a horizontal dome and a tilted dome in one domed surface. Not only it is easy to explain the motion of the starry sky required for learning seasonal changes and the height of Polaris from different latitudes, but also to show the cityscape of Anjo city and the surrounding landscapes, experiencing the powerful wrap-around image.
The number of seats is 120 seats including eight movable seats to accommodate visitors using wheelchairs, and uses stand-alone seats with individual armrests. This ensures that vibrations are hard to be transmitted from seat to seat. There are also several bench seats that allow young children to be seated with their parents for a feeling of increased security. Furthermore, LED lighting which glows faintly is arranged on the stairs in the room. There is also a glass sound isolation room that can be used if a small child starts to cry in the dark, and a magnetic loop hearing aid system for the hearing impaired.
Anjo is retaining the position and angle of their blue sky lighting and the sunrise/sunset, horizontal projector which was used in the old equipment, combining the latest type hybrid planetarium system and these traditional technologies.

On the foyer, an exhibit of "HELIO COMPASS / Solar System Spatio-Temporary Map Earth Calendar" devised by Mr. Kaichi Sugiyama*, is displayed. With bookcases where related books can be placed, further materials are provided to entertain visitors awaiting planetarium programs.
Together these renewed spaces give the impression of a conventional Anjo City Cultural Center, a vital and dynamic planetarium, and exciting and beautiful indoor spaces.

* Kaichi Sugiyama
Born in Shizuoka prefecture in 1977. While living in agriculture, he started making calendars seriously since 2004, and learned the relation between ancient calendars' tradition and the movements of celestial bodies. In that process, he noticed that the prototype of his calendar is a protractor type design, and in 2007 he named the spatiotemporal map which scaled the solar system "Earth calendar".
Official Home Page http://heliostera.com/

Production of original program
As a renewal commemorative program, GOTO produced the original program "Anjo Star and Water Stories" from Anjo City. This is a planetarium program that introduces the thoughts and challenges of the precursors connected to Anjo city. Experience the beautiful starry sky and the vast universe with the dome image production that made use of the unique advantages of this new hybrid planetarium.

Anjo City Cultural Center

Anjo City Cultural Center’s 15 m planetarium dome opened in 1981. As a facility that fosters teenagers' dreams and scientific hearts, it has been popular with many citizens over the years, and it expects many more visitors since its renovation.
Sakuramachi 17-011, Anjo-shi, Aichi Prefecture 446-0041
Official Home Page Anjo City Cultural Center

Commentary

[GOTO INC]
GOTO INC is a top manufacturer of planetarium, fulldome video systems, and astronomical telescope. We have developed many planetarium models ranging from small to very large projectors. There have been more than 1,000 units delivered (cumulative). In addition to developing innovative equipment systems ahead of other companies, we are developing show contents that make use of these functions, and offer maintenance of equipment and planetarium management and operations services.
4-16, Yazaki cho, Fuchu-shi, Tokyo, 183-8530
Official Home Page https://www.goto.co.jp/english/

[HYBRID PLANETARIUM]
A totally new type of planetarium, the GOTO HYBRID Planetarium™ system, was developed by GOTO INC in 2004. It combines an opto-mechanical planetarium projector with a fulldome video system that projects various powerful images, each of which has a mechanism that can project the same coordinate space at all times. GOTO HYBRID Planetariums™ are found not only in Japan, but in Germany, the birthplace of planetarium, as well as in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asian countries and many others. The system can be configured with various opto-mechanical planetarium projectors corresponding to dome diameters from 8 m to the maximum 50 m.

[RSA Cosmos]
RSA Cosmos (Headquarters: France) is a manufacturer of digital, fulldome planetarium systems. In 2002, they developed their own software "SkyExplorer" and have delivered it all over the world.
GOTO INC is a technical partner and hybrid systems integrating "SkyExplorer" and opto-mechanical projectors (manufactured by GOTO INC) have been delivered to Germany, the Czech Republic, the United States, etc. Anjo City Cultural Center is the first hybrid system with SkyExplorer in Japan.
Z. L. de la Vaure-CS 30940-42290 Sorbiers-France, France
Official Home Page http://www.rsacosmos.com/

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