The Friends of the Marie Drake Planetarium, a group of volunteers whose mission is to provide astronomy education and care for the planetarium, is fundraising for a digital projector. The current projector celebrated its 50th birthday in 2017. It’s an analog mechanical optical projection system. While it can show the night sky, its capabilities are limited — it can only show Earth. Friends would like to purchase a Digitalis system, which would increase the capability and versatility of the Marie Drake Planetarium.
“In a digital system, the projected image is made up of individual pixels. Because the dome is covered by an array of pixels rather than a fixed set of holes or lenses, anything can be projected: videos, images, other applications and labels,” Friends wrote in a press release.
The system includes a set of astronomy lesson plans for use for kindergarten through 12th-grade students. The system will show the night sky from anywhere in the database, from views of the Earth from Saturn to the Virgo galactic supercluster. The system comes with royalty free music, can be operated by a remote control, and would be portable.
Their fundraising goal is $50,000. As of print time they have raised $5,000. To donate, go to mariedrakeplanetarium.org to use their PayPal button, make a donation at a planetarium show, to a board member, or send a check to Clark Branch, 306 West 8th St., Juneau, AK 99801.
