above the main floor, so when guests are seated, their heads are close to the horizon of the dome. Instead of having the impression of looking at the stars from the bottom of a well, it’s more like being seated in a field and having the stars surrounding you. Sky-Skan is responsible for the inte-
gration of the optomechanical star projector and the video projectors in the astronomical theatre, plus the arrange- ment of the video projectors in the multimedia theatre.
WHAT’S THE VISITOR EXPERIENCE? Visitors will be directed to either the multimedia theatre or the exhibit area, depending on the time marked on their ticket. We run shows on the hour and want to make sure that visitors don’t miss any part of the experience we have in store for them. In the old Montreal Planetarium, we had a 45-minute presentation. Two- thirds was pre-recorded, then an astronomy interpreter would take peo- ple on a tour of the current night sky. As we now have two theatres, we’ve been able to separate these two experiences. The multimedia theatre hosts the pre- recorded part of the experience – a 23
AM 2 2013 ©cybertrek 2013
The planetarium has 4,000sq m
of space with room for exhibits, classrooms and function rooms
minute-long presentation by well-known multimedia creators Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon. Visitors are taken on a trip from the surface of a lake in the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal, up to the extreme outreach of the uni- verse, down underneath the lake and then back to the surface again. The nar- ration is musical, set to excerpts from the symphonic music of the renowned American composer Philip Glass, which is very exciting for us. The experience is rich both visually and aurally. Visitors then go into the astronomi-
cal theatre for a 40-minute show, where a live astronomy interpreter talks them through the current night sky under the magnificent Konica Minolta starry sky. After 20 minutes, we blast off from Earth in our virtual spacecraft to visit up close all the objects and phenomena that were discussed in the previous part. For instance, if Jupiter and Saturn are visible on a particular occasion, then we fly to these two giant planets and
explore them, their moons and their rings. Or we may take visitors all the way to the edge of the known universe – to the outskirts of our Milky Way. The fulldome video technology we
use in both theatres allows us to travel anywhere in the universe and look at whatever we want to see. For example, if a new exoplanet was discovered around a star in the Milky Way, we could show that new planet up close, as soon as it’s added to the database. It’s easy to show the planet revolving around its star, even though it was only discovered a few hours before. Every show is different because it’s
be driven by what’s happening in the universe on a day-to-day basis. In the astronomical theatre, we run separate presentations in French and English. At the end of the presentation in
the astronomical theatre, visitors go into the 500sq m (5,400sq ft) exhibit area. This is devoted to one of the most important questions in astronomy – are we alone in the universe or are there other planets where life has emerged, and maybe evolved, perhaps not to the point of intelligent life, but at least primitive life, such as bacteria? It’s such a major topic and drives the exploration
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