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69-607: There are several other attractions in the museum besides the collection, including a planetarium , a large-format cinema and a 1:20,000 scale aerial photograph of Switzerland. The museum traces its history to 1897, when the first attempts at creating a museum of railway equipment were made. Following a national exhibition in 1914, the Swiss Railway Museum was founded by Swiss Federal Railways in 1918 in Zurich. The concept eventually grew to encompass all transportation and, in 1942,

138-475: A star ball , slide projector , video , fulldome projector systems, and lasers. Typical systems can be set to simulate the sky at any point in time, past or present, and often to depict the night sky as it would appear from any point of latitude on Earth. Planetaria range in size from the 37 meter dome in St. Petersburg, Russia (called "Planetarium No 1") to three-meter inflatable portable domes where attendees sit on

207-425: A bright image projected on one side of the dome will tend to reflect light across to the opposite side, "lifting" the black level there and so making the whole image look less realistic. Since traditional planetarium shows consisted mainly of small points of light (i.e., stars) on a black background, this was not a significant issue, but it became an issue as digital projection systems started to fill large portions of

276-526: A far greater selection of stars. Additional projectors can be added to show twilight around the outside of the screen (complete with city or country scenes) as well as the Milky Way . Others add coordinate lines and constellations , photographic slides, laser displays, and other images. Each planet is projected by a sharply focused spotlight that makes a spot of light on the dome. Planet projectors must have gearing to move their positioning and thereby simulate

345-406: A favoured "sweet spot" for optimum viewing, centrally about a third of the way up the dome from the lowest point. Tilted domes generally have seating arranged stadium-style in straight, tiered rows; horizontal domes usually have seats in circular rows, arranged in concentric (facing center) or epicentric (facing front) arrays. Planetaria occasionally include controls such as buttons or joysticks in

414-523: A hollow ball with a light inside, and a pinhole for each star, hence the name "star ball". With some of the brightest stars (e.g. Sirius , Canopus , Vega ), the hole must be so big to let enough light through that there must be a small lens in the hole to focus the light to a sharp point on the dome. In later and modern planetarium star balls, the individual bright stars often have individual projectors, shaped like small hand-held torches, with focusing lenses for individual bright stars. Contact breakers prevent

483-766: A lot of attention. Next Zeiss planetariums were opened in Rome (1928, in Aula Ottagona , part of the Baths of Diocletian ), Chicago (1930), Osaka (1937, in the Osaka City Electricity Science Museum ). When Germany was divided into East and West Germany after the war, the Zeiss firm was also split. Part remained in its traditional headquarters at Jena , in East Germany , and part migrated to West Germany . The designer of

552-472: A mid-size audio-visual firm on Long Island . About thirty canned programs were created for various grade levels and the public, while operators could create their own or run the planetarium live. Purchasers of the Apollo were given their choice of two canned shows, and could purchase more. A few hundred were sold, but in the late 1970s Viewlex went bankrupt for reasons unrelated to the planetarium business. During

621-499: A planetary equatorium in his Theorica Planetarum , and included instructions on how to build one. The Globe of Gottorf built around 1650 had constellations painted on the inside. These devices would today usually be referred to as orreries (named for the Earl of Orrery ). In fact, many planetariums today have projection orreries, which project onto the dome the Solar System (including

690-408: A resolution that approaches the limit of human visual acuity . LCD projectors have fundamental limits on their ability to project true black as well as light, which has tended to limit their use in planetaria. LCOS and modified LCOS projectors have improved on LCD contrast ratios while also eliminating the "screen door" effect of small gaps between LCD pixels. "Dark chip" DLP projectors improve on

759-517: A room, projecting images onto the white surface of a hemisphere. In August 1923, the first (Model I) Zeiss planetarium projected images of the night sky onto the white plaster lining of a 16 m hemispherical concrete dome, erected on the roof of the Zeiss works. The first official public showing was at the Deutsches Museum in Munich on October 21, 1923. Zeiss Planetarium became popular, and attracted

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828-505: A show because they allow simulation of the view from any point in space, not only the Earth-bound view which we are most familiar with. This new virtual reality capability to travel through the universe provides important educational benefits because it vividly conveys that space has depth, helping audiences to leave behind the ancient misconception that the stars are stuck on the inside of a giant celestial sphere and instead to understand

897-582: A space station. The exhibits in the hall, which opened in 1984, provide an overview of how shipping developed in Switzerland. On display outside is the submersible Mésoscaphe , designed by Auguste Piccard for the Swiss national exposition of 1964 and the Rigi, the world's oldest surviving flush-deck side-wheeler steamer. The "Nautirama" multimedia show depicts the marine history of Central Switzerland . A cutaway model of

966-448: A star ball to address some of their limitations. Digital planetarium manufacturers claim reduced maintenance costs and increased reliability from such systems compared with traditional "star balls" on the grounds that they employ few moving parts and do not generally require synchronisation of movement across the dome between several separate systems. Some planetariums mix both traditional opto-mechanical projection and digital technologies on

1035-424: A tyre robot, interactive picking stations, and the virtual harvest-to-retail journey of a pineapple. The current aviation exhibition features civil aviation, mountain and rescue interventions, Swiss engineering achievements, and flying as a career. The 30 or so original aircraft on display range from a 1909 Dufaux 4 biplane, the oldest surviving Swiss aircraft; a Blériot XI flown by aviation pioneer Oskar Bider ,

1104-557: Is Zhurong (2021–2022). On January 24, 2016, NASA reported that then current studies on Mars by Opportunity and Curiosity would be searching for evidence of ancient life, including a biosphere based on autotrophic , chemotrophic or chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms , as well as ancient water, including fluvio-lacustrine environments ( plains related to ancient rivers or lakes ) that may have been habitable . The search for evidence of habitability , taphonomy (related to fossils ), and organic carbon on Mars

1173-453: Is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky , or for training in celestial navigation . A dominant feature of most planetariums is the large dome -shaped projection screen onto which scenes of stars , planets , and other celestial objects can be made to appear and move realistically to simulate their motion. The projection can be created in various ways, such as

1242-500: Is a remote-controlled motor vehicle designed to travel on the surface of Mars . Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers : they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny positions to weather winter months, and they can advance the knowledge of how to perform very remote robotic vehicle control. They serve a different purpose than orbital spacecraft like Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter . A more recent development

1311-899: Is located on the shore of Lake Lucerne in the northern section of the city of Lucerne , some 30 minutes walking time from the town centre. It is served by trains of the Lucerne S-Bahn at the adjacent Lucerne Verkehrshaus railway station , by boat services of the Schifffahrtsgesellschaft des Vierwaldstättersees at the Verkehrshaus-Lido landing stage on the lake, and by the Lucerne trolleybus system . All three provide convenient connections with central Lucerne. 47°03′10″N 8°20′09″E  /  47.05278°N 8.33583°E  / 47.05278; 8.33583 Planetarium A planetarium ( pl. : planetariums or planetaria )

1380-504: Is now a primary NASA objective. The Soviet probes, Mars 2 and Mars 3 , were physically tethered probes; Sojourner was dependent on the Mars Pathfinder base station for communication with Earth; Opportunity , Spirit and Curiosity were on their own. As of November 2023, Curiosity is still active, while Spirit , Opportunity , and Sojourner completed their missions before losing contact. On February 18, 2021, Perseverance ,

1449-399: Is sometimes used generically to describe other devices which illustrate the Solar System , such as a computer simulation or an orrery . Planetarium software refers to a software application that renders a three-dimensional image of the sky onto a two-dimensional computer screen, or in a virtual reality headset for a 3D representation. The term planetarian is used to describe a member of

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1518-632: Is the Mars helicopter . As of May 2021 , there have been six successful robotically operated Mars rovers; the first five, managed by the American NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory , were (by date of Mars landing): Sojourner (1997), Spirit (2004–2010), Opportunity (2004–2018), Curiosity (2012–present), and Perseverance (2021–present). The sixth, managed by the China National Space Administration ,

1587-482: Is the Car Theatre, in which a vehicle, selected from a collection of vehicles from all periods of automobile history, is hoisted out of a high-bay warehouse and presented on a stage. The external facades of the hall are covered by 344 Swiss road signs. The hall is also home to a special exhibition on the world of logistics. It comprises an AutoStore automated small parts warehouse, an animated miniature distribution centre,

1656-574: The California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park , San Francisco , which operated 1952–2003. The Korkosz brothers built a large projector for the Boston Museum of Science , which was unique in being the first (and for a very long time only) planetarium to project the planet Uranus . Most planetariums ignore Uranus as being at best marginally visible to the naked eye. A great boost to

1725-633: The Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl observatory of the University of Heidelberg , on a new and novel design, inspired by Wallace W. Atwood 's work at the Chicago Academy of Sciences and by the ideas of Walther Bauersfeld and Rudolf Straubel at Zeiss . The result was a planetarium design which would generate all the necessary movements of the stars and planets inside the optical projector, and would be mounted centrally in

1794-525: The Sun and planets up to Saturn ) in their regular orbital paths. In 1229, following the conclusion of the Fifth Crusade , Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen brought back a tent with scattered holes representing stars or planets . The device was operated internally with a spinnable table that rotated the tent. The small size of typical 18th century orreries limited their impact, and towards

1863-503: The 1970s, the OmniMax movie system (now known as IMAX Dome) was conceived to operate on planetarium screens. More recently, some planetariums have re-branded themselves as dome theaters , with broader offerings including wide-screen or "wraparound" films, fulldome video , and laser shows that combine music with laser-drawn patterns. Learning Technologies Inc. in Massachusetts offered

1932-653: The Panta Rhei, a mural depicting great Western thinkers on two 18 meter long panels. Also located at the museum are a planetarium and a theater. An exhibit about media was sponsored by Red Bull . The museum maintains a library and archive of documents related to transportation. The museum maintains the Swiss National Transport Collection of items of "important technical, social, economic and cultural development" related to transportation that were "produced, modified and/or used in Switzerland". The museum

2001-546: The Pilatus saloon paddle steamer, engines by Saurer and Escher & Wyss , outboard engines and Voith-Schneider propellers trace the development of ship propulsion. Also in the exhibition are flying ships, the smallest two-man submersible, a model of the waterways locks in Birsfelden, sailing boats, a lifeboat from the ocean-going MS Carona  [ de ] that sank in 1964, and a steamship parade featuring models of some of

2070-574: The Swiss Museum of Transport association was established. Swiss Federal Railways was joined by the Swiss Postal Telegraph and Telephone as well as other private transport, trade, industry, and tourism organizations. However, when no suitable site could be found in Zurich for the planned museum, the city of Lucerne offered the association a 22,500 square metres (242,000 sq ft) site adjacent to Lake Lucerne . Construction began in 1957 and

2139-474: The arm rests of seats to allow audience feedback that influences the show in real time . Often around the edge of the dome (the "cove") are: Traditionally, planetariums needed many incandescent lamps around the cove of the dome to help audience entry and exit, to simulate sunrise and sunset , and to provide working light for dome cleaning. More recently, solid-state LED lighting has become available that significantly decreases power consumption and reduces

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2208-417: The dome with bright objects (e.g., large images of the sun in context). For this reason, modern planetarium domes are often not painted white but rather a mid grey colour, reducing reflection to perhaps 35-50%. This increases the perceived level of contrast. A major challenge in dome construction is to make seams as invisible as possible. Painting a dome after installation is a major task, and if done properly,

2277-448: The dome) in every elementary school in Japan. Phillip Stern, as former lecturer at New York City 's Hayden Planetarium , had the idea of creating a small planetarium which could be programmed. His Apollo model was introduced in 1967 with a plastic program board, recorded lecture, and film strip. Unable to pay for this himself, Stern became the head of the planetarium division of Viewlex ,

2346-438: The end of that century a number of educators attempted to create a larger sized version. The efforts of Adam Walker (1730–1821) and his sons are noteworthy in their attempts to fuse theatrical illusions with education. Walker's Eidouranion was the heart of his public lectures or theatrical presentations. Walker's son describes this "Elaborate Machine" as "twenty feet high, and twenty-seven in diameter: it stands vertically before

2415-462: The exhibition also displays a Meteodrone SUI-9999, a weather drone patented by the Swiss company Meteomatics that collects weather data from the mid and low levels of the atmosphere. The space exhibit houses the 4.5 tonne EURECA , one of only a few satellites returned safely to Earth. Other displays include a Spacelab pallet, a piece of the original foil of the solar wind experiment conducted as part of

2484-571: The first digital planetarium projector displaying computer graphics ( Hansen planetarium , Salt Lake City, Utah)—the Digistar I projector used a vector graphics system to display starfields as well as line art . This gives the operator great flexibility in showing not only the modern night sky as visible from Earth , but as visible from points far distant in space and time. The newest generations of planetarium projectors, beginning with Digistar 3 , offer fulldome video technology. This allows for

2553-536: The first Moon landing ( Apollo 11 , 1969), a Moon rock , a Martian landscape with full-size models of three Mars rovers , and duplicates of measuring instruments that explored the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet as part of the Rosetta mission . The interactive portion of the exhibition is a "Space Transformer", a large walk-in cube that rotates slowly around its diagonal axis, giving the impression of disorientation in

2622-477: The first easily portable planetarium in 1977. Philip Sadler designed this patented system which projected stars, constellation figures from many mythologies , celestial coordinate systems, and much else, from removable cylinders (Viewlex and others followed with their own portable versions). When Germany reunified in 1989, the two Zeiss firms did likewise, and expanded their offerings to cover many different size domes. In 1983, Evans & Sutherland installed

2691-598: The first planetariums for Zeiss, Walther Bauersfeld , also migrated to West Germany with the other members of the Zeiss management team. There he remained on the Zeiss West management team until his death in 1959. The West German firm resumed making large planetariums in 1954, and the East German firm started making small planetariums a few years later. Meanwhile, the lack of planetarium manufacturers had led to several attempts at construction of unique models, such as one built by

2760-855: The floor. The largest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere is the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium at Liberty Science Center in New Jersey , its dome measuring 27 meters in diameter. The Birla Planetarium in Kolkata, India is the largest by seating capacity, having 630 seats. In North America, the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City has the greatest number of seats, at 423. The term planetarium

2829-455: The horizon of the dome are arranged to blend together seamlessly. Digital projection systems all work by creating the image of the night sky as a large array of pixels . Generally speaking, the more pixels a system can display, the better the viewing experience. While the first generation of digital projectors were unable to generate enough pixels to match the image quality of the best traditional "star ball" projectors, high-end systems now offer

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2898-603: The maintenance requirement as lamps no longer have to be changed on a regular basis. The world's largest mechanical planetarium is located in Monico, Wisconsin. The Kovac Planetarium . It is 22 feet in diameter and weighs two tons. The globe is made of wood and is driven with a variable speed motor controller. This is the largest mechanical planetarium in the world, larger than the Atwood Globe in Chicago (15 feet in diameter) and one third

2967-403: The museum was opened two years later on 1 July 1959. A planetarium was added in 1969 and an aerospace hall in 1972. In the course of a storm, flooding occurred in the museum on the night of 21–22 August 2005, which inundated some of the displays and damaged contents in the basement rooms of the navigation and aviation departments. The museum is divided into a variety of thematic areas: Amongst

3036-537: The newest American Mars rover, successfully landed. On May 14, 2021, China's Zhurong became the first non-American rover to successfully operate on Mars. Multiple rovers have been dispatched to Mars: Examples of instruments onboard landed rovers include: Circa the 2010s, NASA had established certain goals for the rover program. NASA distinguishes between "mission" objectives and "science" objectives. Mission objectives are related to progress in space technology and development processes. Science objectives are met by

3105-402: The night sky. Finally, in most traditional projectors the various overlaid projection systems are incapable of proper occultation . This means that a planet image projected on top of a star field (for example) will still show the stars shining through the planet image, degrading the quality of the viewing experience. For related reasons, some planetariums show stars below the horizon projecting on

3174-519: The old Grindelwald-Männlichen gondola cableway complete with cabin. The tourism section of the exhibition features the crowd-pulling Tourism Flipper marble run. The adjacent "Livemap Switzerland" is a 1:20000 scale aerial view of Switzerland that can be walked on. Built in 1979, the museum has on display a large collection of works by the Lucerne artist Hans Erni . It also holds temporary exhibitions featuring works by other artists. The second floor includes

3243-508: The only surviving Lockheed Orion , three Swissair aircraft, including a Convair 990 ; a Northrop F-5E fighter in the colors of the Patrouille Suisse aerobatic team, and a Bombardier Challenger 604 used by the Rega air rescue service. A row of display cases containing scale models of aircraft show the development of aviation from its beginnings to the present day. Besides crewed aircraft,

3312-402: The planets' movements. These can be of these types:- Despite offering a good viewer experience, traditional star ball projectors suffer several inherent limitations. From a practical point of view, the low light levels require several minutes for the audience to "dark adapt" its eyesight. "Star ball" projection is limited in education terms by its inability to move beyond an Earth-bound view of

3381-561: The popularity of the planetarium worldwide was provided by the Space Race of the 1950s and 60s when fears that the United States might miss out on the opportunities of the new frontier in space stimulated a massive program to install over 1,200 planetariums in U.S. high schools. Armand Spitz recognized that there was a viable market for small inexpensive planetaria. His first model, the Spitz A,

3450-502: The professional staff of a planetarium. The ancient Greek polymath Archimedes is attributed with creating a primitive planetarium device that could predict the movements of the Sun and the Moon and the planets. The discovery of the Antikythera mechanism proved that such devices already existed during antiquity , though likely after Archimedes' lifetime. Campanus of Novara described

3519-423: The projection of any image. Planetarium domes range in size from 3 to 35 m in diameter , accommodating from 1 to 500 people. They can be permanent or portable, depending on the application. The realism of the viewing experience in a planetarium depends significantly on the dynamic range of the image, i.e., the contrast between dark and light. This can be a challenge in any domed projection environment, because

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3588-469: The projectors from projecting below the "horizon". The star ball is usually mounted so it can rotate as a whole to simulate the Earth's daily rotation, and to change the simulated latitude on Earth. There is also usually a means of rotating to produce the effect of precession of the equinoxes . Often, one such ball is attached at its south ecliptic pole. In that case, the view cannot go so far south that any of

3657-617: The rail transport collection are rolling stock from Switzerland's first ever railway, the Swiss Northern Railway and a SBB Ae 8/14 electric engine. An H0 gauge model railway layout of the Gotthard portrays the northern ramp of the Gotthard railway between Erstfeld station and the Göschenen tunnel, including the three loop/curved tunnels near Wassen . Due to reconstruction of a part of

3726-543: The railway hall this large model railway was removed and put to storage until further notice. The hall also features a train simulator, which visitors can use to travel through the NRLA base tunnel. The road transport collection on display contains horse-drawn vehicles, bicycles, motorcycles and cars, as well as an exhibition on road safety realized in cooperation with the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention . One major attraction

3795-499: The resulting blank area at the south is projected on the dome. Some star projectors have two balls at opposite ends of the projector like a dumbbell . In that case all stars can be shown and the view can go to either pole or anywhere between. But care must be taken that the projection fields of the two balls match where they meet or overlap. Smaller planetarium projectors include a set of fixed stars, Sun, Moon, and planets, and various nebulae . Larger projectors also include comets and

3864-428: The same dome. In a fully digital planetarium, the dome image is generated by a computer and then projected onto the dome using a variety of technologies including cathode-ray tube , LCD , DLP , or laser projectors. Sometimes a single projector mounted near the centre of the dome is employed with a fisheye lens to spread the light over the whole dome surface, while in other configurations several projectors around

3933-409: The seams can be made almost to disappear. Traditionally, planetarium domes were mounted horizontally, matching the natural horizon of the real night sky. However, because that configuration requires highly inclined chairs for comfortable viewing "straight up", increasingly domes are being built tilted from the horizontal by between 5 and 30 degrees to provide greater comfort. Tilted domes tend to create

4002-586: The size of the Hayden. Some new planetariums now feature a glass floor , which allows spectators to stand near the center of a sphere surrounded by projected images in all directions, giving the impression of floating in outer space . For example, a small planetarium at AHHAA in Tartu , Estonia features such an installation, with special projectors for images below the feet of the audience, as well as above their heads. Traditional planetarium projection apparatus use

4071-456: The sky tonight?", or shows which pick up on topical issues such as a religious festival (often the Christmas star ) linked to the night sky, have been popular. Live format is preferred by many venues as a live speaker or presenter can answer questions raised by the audience. Since the early 1990s, fully featured 3-D digital planetariums have added an extra degree of freedom to a presenter giving

4140-460: The spectators, and its globes are so large, that they are distinctly seen in the most distant parts of the Theatre. Every Planet and Satellite seems suspended in space, without any support; performing their annual and diurnal revolutions without any apparent cause". Other lecturers promoted their own devices: R E Lloyd advertised his Dioastrodoxon, or Grand Transparent Orrery, and by 1825 William Kitchener

4209-476: The standard DLP design and can offer relatively inexpensive solution with bright images, but the black level requires physical baffling of the projectors. As the technology matures and reduces in price, laser projection looks promising for dome projection as it offers bright images, large dynamic range and a very wide color space . Worldwide, most planetariums provide shows to the general public. Traditionally, shows for these audiences with themes such as "What's in

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4278-543: The true layout of the Solar System and beyond. For example, a planetarium can now 'fly' the audience towards one of the familiar constellations such as Orion , revealing that the stars which appear to make up a co-ordinated shape from an Earth-bound viewpoint are at vastly different distances from Earth and so not connected, except in human imagination and mythology . For especially visual or spatially aware people, this experience can be more educationally beneficial than other demonstrations. Mars rovers A Mars rover

4347-465: The vessels that ply Switzerland's lakes. The exhibition illustrates developments in aerial cableway engineering from early hand-operated cableways and ski lifts to modern-day large-capacity cable cars. It includes a working model of Engelberg 's Stand-Kleintitlis reversible cableway and a cabin from the Wetterhorn Elevator with original running gear. The exhibition also incorporates a section of

4416-432: The walls below the dome or on the floor, or (with a bright star or a planet) shining in the eyes of someone in the audience. However, the new breed of Optical-Mechanical projectors using fiber-optic technology to display the stars show a much more realistic view of the sky. An increasing number of planetariums are using digital technology to replace the entire system of interlinked projectors traditionally employed around

4485-613: Was completed in 1781. In 1905 Oskar von Miller (1855–1934) of the Deutsches Museum in Munich commissioned updated versions of a geared orrery and planetarium from M Sendtner, and later worked with Franz Meyer, chief engineer at the Carl Zeiss optical works in Jena , on the largest mechanical planetarium ever constructed, capable of displaying both heliocentric and geocentric motion. This

4554-465: Was designed to project stars from a dodecahedron , thus reducing machining expenses in creating a globe. Planets were not mechanized, but could be shifted by hand. Several models followed with various upgraded capabilities, until the A3P, which projected well over a thousand stars, had motorized motions for latitude change, daily motion, and annual motion for Sun, Moon (including phases), and planets. This model

4623-407: Was displayed at the Deutsches Museum in 1924, construction work having been interrupted by the war. The planets travelled along overhead rails, powered by electric motors: the orbit of Saturn was 11.25 m in diameter. 180 stars were projected onto the wall by electric bulbs. While this was being constructed, von Miller was also working at the Zeiss factory with German astronomer Max Wolf , director of

4692-525: Was installed in hundreds of high schools, colleges, and even small museums from 1964 to the 1980s. Japan entered the planetarium manufacturing business in the 1960s, with Goto and Minolta both successfully marketing a number of different models. Goto was particularly successful when the Japanese Ministry of Education put one of their smallest models, the E-3 or E-5 (the numbers refer to the metric diameter of

4761-481: Was offering his Ouranologia, which was 42 feet (13 m) in diameter. These devices most probably sacrificed astronomical accuracy for crowd-pleasing spectacle and sensational and awe-provoking imagery. The oldest still-working planetarium can be found in the Frisian city of Franeker . It was built by Eise Eisinga (1744–1828) in the living room of his house. It took Eisinga seven years to build his planetarium, which

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