Science centre’s new planetarium has ‘wow factor’
‘People will come in here and their mouths are going to drop,’ director says
The Telus World of Science will begin a year-long construction project on its planetarium theatre, complete with a new projection system featuring a display resolution higher than any planetarium in the world.
A new phase of the centre’s $40-million Aurora Project is set to begin next week when the Margaret Zeidler Star Theatre planetarium will close and undergo renovations for a year, centre president and CEO Alan Nursall announced Tuesday.
It will be renamed the Zeidler Dome Theatre and the resolution of the screens will be 10K — unprecedented for theatres. To put it in perspective, IMAX movie theatre screens have a resolution of 4K.
The revamped theatre will allow visitors to go on scientific journeys, moving beyond just showing stars, Nursall said.
Frank Florian, the centre’s director of planetarium and space sciences, said with most planetarium screens having 8K resolution, this world-first will transport visitors anywhere in the universe.
“With this new 10K resolution video projection system, the stars that we can project, the images will be incredibly sharp, highly detailed, and it will make you feel like you’re right there,” Florian said.
“I think when this new theatre opens, people will come in here and their mouths are going to drop because it’s going to make them feel like they’re in these environments. It’s going to be a wow factor.”
A 3-D model of the centre’s $40-million expansion project was unveiled Tuesday outlining capacity issues as the primary reason for the 20,000-square-foot addition.
“We’re doing it to meet demand, an opportunity to grow and expand, which we need to do because so many of the things we do are over capacity,” Nursall said.
The first phase of the centre’s “re-imagination” has already been completed in the form of a larger “Purple Pear” food facility.
The 33-year-old building is in need of renovations, Nursall said, but also more room because they constantly run out of space for science summer camps and often reach capacity in the early childhood education centre, which is now planned to double in size.
The centre has just under $20 million raised for the project, Nursall said, close to the halfway mark of the necessary funds.
The City of Edmonton invested $12 million and the centre has started a community campaign for $7.5 million, with more than $1 million already donated.
In May, the federal government contributed $3.35 million to the renovation projects, allowing the planetarium redesign to take place.
The centre is now working with the Alberta government, Nursall said, to match the $12 million investment put forward by the city.
“The really big piece right now is the discussion with the provincial government,” he said. “It’s just a question of finding the right timing and finding the right source of funds.”