A Hybrid system for an impressive planetarium in Japan

We installed in the impressive 20m dome of the Nature Museum of Mt Sanbe “Sahimel”, a powerful 4K Hybrid system bringing together cutting-edge technologies: 2 x 4K VPL-GTZ380 SONY projectors along with our powerful astronomical software SkyExplorer, totally synchronized with our starball Konica Minolta Planetarium Infinium Σ, and a dedicated moon projector.

Offering an overwhelmingly realistic night sky and stunning journeys through the Universe in this renowned educational institution!

The museum was established at the foot of Mt. Sanbe in 1991, with an impressive planetarium and astronomical observatory, as an educational institution for the public to learn all about the nature of Shimane Prefecture and Mt. Sanbe, and to understand the natural world, our place in it.

We installed in the impressive 20m dome 2 x 4K 10,000 lumens VPL-GTZ380 Sony projectors and our software SkyExplorer, named Media Globe ∑ SE in Japan, totally synchronized with our Infinium Σ starball, and a dedicated moon projector, to offer spectacular journeys through the Universe, along with the most stunning, realistic and educational night sky observations.

By combining Sony’s projectors and our powerful software SkyExplorer, the highest image quality and rendering were achieved with the finest level of pixel, offering stunning and realistic images in real time. Sony’s VPL-GTZ380 projectors reach 10,000 lumens through a laser light source, achieve very high levels of contrasts thanks to the SXRD 4K panels, and offer rich colors reproducing 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut without losing any brightness.

To achieve the most magnificent night sky renderings, SkyExplorer is totally synchronized with our starball Infinium Σ and a dedicated Moon projector. Our innovative starball offers the closest rendering to a natural sky thanks to its cutting-edge projection mechanism that reproduces the realistic gradation of the night sky and thanks to its high-luminance LED light source that projects the brightest twinkling stars. Combined with SkyExplorer’s great didactic tools and night sky rendering generated using Gaia DR2 catalog, planetarium operators and the audience can visualize the most stunning and scientifically accurate night sky.
The dedicated Moon projector allows to represent with great levels of contrasts, the moon eclipses, the libration, and the changes of the apparent size, and enables to control manually the phase of the Moon.

A stunning planetarium to discover!