Timmons Planetarium and Simulation Classroom

Located in Rinker Hall 253 of the Townes Science Center, this classroom has a 24-foot dome projection surface for displaying images of the night sky,
full dome video, computer generated visualization media from other scientific disciplines, and non-scientific media such as digitial art.
At present, the room can seat a class size of 25, but can accommodate more when the tables are broken down and stacked out of the way.

At the heart of this system is a Mediaglobe II projector, built by Konica Minolta, and installed by Audio Visual Imagineering.
The dome was manufactured by Astro-tec Domes.

The Timmons Planetarium has a license for two full-dome shows, both produced by Loch Ness Productions.

• Seasons of the Sky: A presentation about the night sky for each season of the year (15 minutes).
• Hubble Vision 2: Displays some of the Hubble Space Telescope's finest images, both near and far (30 minutes).
  This show was acquired through a generous donation by the Fall 2008 Astronomy class of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Photos!

Installation of the dome panels by Astro-tec. The planetarium system
was completed during Phase I of the Townes Science Center renovation
and construction, and has been in use since January, 2008.

The classroom layout, looking forward. The control console is on the left, teaching station on right.
The table tops can be folded up to allow the tables to be rolled and stacked at the rear
and sides of the room.

The classroom layout, looking toward the rear. The projector sits atop a telescoping pier.
The projection system can be remotely controlled by a computer at the rear of the classroom.

The view from behind the planetarium control console.

The planetarium's starfield.

A snapshot of a full-dome video displayed on the dome surface.

For more information about the facility, or to arrange a tour or demonstration of the room, please contact David Moffett.