After eight years of delays, Guilford’s Bryan Jr. Auditorium now has a planetarium projector. Planetarium technology has improved and decreased in cost to allow this new unit to be purchased and installed. When Guilford planned the construction of Frank Family Science Center, they included the planetarium in the budget. However, money ran short and they could not purchase the projector until now.

“Hundreds of thousands of dollars go into installing planetarium projectors, in the traditional sense,” said Donald Smith, assistant professor of physics. Technology has improved and costs have come down such that we now have an entirely new way of looking at planetariums. This new technology costs us around $18,000 dollars.”

The curved mirror projector can manipulate images to appear on the dome in Bryan Jr. Auditorium with its ability to run any program – whether a Powerpoint presentation or a tour of the galaxy.

The physics department looks forward to the projector’s various uses.

“Not only do we get to show the planetarium images, but anything in theory you can format on a computer you project,” Smith said. “A fisheye image would be projected as if you were standing in that location.”

“What we really need to do in the future is start to write programs; we can create tours of the solar systems and other such simulations,” said Glaxo Wellcome Professor of Physics Thom Espinola. “Such as, if you were in the blood stream, or on the moon.”

“I’m a physics major here so it is a great device,” said senior David Jackman, physics major and teaching assistant. “I like that Thom has already been using it, but I feel like it would be best used for public outreach events.”

The physics department decided to purchase this specific type of projector to accommodate the needs of other activities in Bryan Jr. Auditorium. Plays and other events would be impossible with a huge apparatus jotting out of the ground.

Last year, the Greensboro Natural Science Center planned to donate their existing ball projector. After measuring the space and calling different companies about moving projectors of this caliber, Espinola decided to take a different course.

“We settled on the mirror projector. It would have very greatly limited the other uses of the space (if we had gone with the classic ball projector),” said Espinola. “As the technology improves we can project new programs onto the dome.”

In this new unit there are only a certain number of pixels that can be focused on the projector. This limit can affect the projector.

There also is a problem of being able to reflect the projected image over the entire dome. Due to the placement of the projector, a blocked projection appears behind the projector so one cannot see it unless they look directly behind them.

The planetarium hosts its first open house this semester at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 21.