Research and Development

OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY

A Konica Minolta's planetarium incorporates an optical fiber light-leading lens projection system and a metal halide lamp with high color temperature (almost the same as the sun) as a light source, and faithfully reproduces delicate differences of brightness and characteristic tone of fixed stars. Especially for bright stars (particularly bright fixed stars), it can reproduce a brighter star image at a small visual diameter, compared to conventional planetariums.

Further, by employing a rotating twinkling apparatus, a starry sky is shown in which almost all fixed stars, including bright stars (all fixed stars except for those in the region of the Milky Way) twinkle at random. The original fixed star plate is subjected to direct treatment based on precise positional data of the Milky Way, as well as nebulas and star clusters. The Milky Way is reproduced as a group of about 350,000 stars, which allow the audience to more realistically view the depth of a starry sky.