Blogs

Report on the annual meeting of astronomical clubs and institution in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania / Germany

By Dr. Michael Danielides posted 11-20-2021 13:09

  
There are not many planetariums in the sparsely populated star paradise of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. This became clear again at the 13th annual meeting of the astronomical institutions of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (M-Vs). It took place on October 30th, 2021 in the Hanseatic city of Demmin and was organized by the Demmin astronomy station. The special thing about the annual meeting of the astronomical institutions M-Vs is that they are organized every year by a different institution. Thus, the community of star friends who meet regularly over the years visit the most diverse places in the country. Another peculiarity is due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. The 12th and 13th annual meeting could be carried out in spite of the various Covid-19 contact and hygiene restrictions. It was probably due to this reason and because of the very special topic that only a small group came together for this year's meeting.
Group photo of the workshop participants in front of the town hall of the Hanseatic city of Demmin

Thematically, the group dealt with the digitization of planetariums and observatories in a workshop atmosphere. For a few years now, digital and immersive fulldome projection technology has found its way into M-V's three leading planetariums in the country (in Schwerin, Rostock and Demmin).

Despite and perhaps precisely because of the planned workshop atmosphere of the event, there were only short introductory lectures on topics such as: fulldome technology and the digitization of observatories. In addition, there was a report on the AllSky7 fireball network (see report at "Sternzeit" journal).

At the end of the meeting, plans were forged to jointly develop educationally relevant fulldome content from their own country. The representatives of the institutions present considered this to be a sustainable approach for a time when, due to contact restrictions, not much public traffic is to be expected.
Dr. Danielides demonstrated the double fish-eye fulldome projection system. On the right picture the old ZKP-II Planetarium projector can be seen in front of 21th century fulldome projection.
0 comments
0 views

Permalink