Palanan
2021-09-22, 11:31 AM
Back in the day, around 1995, the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum had an exhibit on space exploration with two standout sections. The first was a small theater playing clips from Empire Strikes Back to illustrate basic physics, with a claymation Albert Einstein as the guide.
The second was the Stellarium, in a separate darkened alcove, which used fiber-optics to create a three-dimensional map of nearby space, with over seven hundred accurately positioned stars. It had a short voice narration that introduced a number of local stars, highlighted by flashing LEDs.
It was exquisite, and the best museum exhibit I’ve ever seen for capturing both the scope and the serenity of interstellar space. But all exhibits must eventually close down, and now I’m wondering whatever happened to the Stellarium itself.
Does anyone remember this? And does anyone know where it ended up?
The second was the Stellarium, in a separate darkened alcove, which used fiber-optics to create a three-dimensional map of nearby space, with over seven hundred accurately positioned stars. It had a short voice narration that introduced a number of local stars, highlighted by flashing LEDs.
It was exquisite, and the best museum exhibit I’ve ever seen for capturing both the scope and the serenity of interstellar space. But all exhibits must eventually close down, and now I’m wondering whatever happened to the Stellarium itself.
Does anyone remember this? And does anyone know where it ended up?