World’s first tilted LED dome planetarium to open in Mysuru in Sept 2025

PTI, Dec 1, 2024, 6:29 PM IST

Representative image (credit: Pexels)

The world’s first-ever tilted dome LED planetarium is taking shape in Mysuru and will offer visitors an immersive experience of the night sky once it opens in September 2025.

The Rs 91-crore project is being constructed by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIAp) and the University of Mysore at its Chamundi Hills campus.

“Unlike a conventional projector-based fulldome system widely used in planetaria, the LED dome system produces images using LED elements that emit light on an immense colour spectrum,” IIAp Director Annapurni Subramanian told PTI on the sidelines of the India International Science Festival (IISF) here.

Subramanian said the planetarium will comprise a 15-metre diameter dome tilted at an angle of 15 degrees which will allow users to view the night sky right in front of them instead of sitting in reclining chairs and craning their necks.

Characterised by its higher luminance and wider colour gamut, the LED dome system can reproduce highly realistic beautiful starry skies and astronomy visuals, she said, adding that the 8K LED lights are controlled by SkyExplorer astronomical software of French firm RSA Cosmos.

“The construction and the work of building the planetarium on site is progressing rapidly and we hope to inaugurate the planetarium by September next year,” Subramanian said.

RSA Cosmos was awarded the contract to build the LED dome planetarium by the IIAp and the installation will be carried out by Orbit Animate Pvt. Ltd., the Indian subsidiary of the French firm.

The Cosmology Education and Research Training Centre (COSMOS) of the IIAp along with the planetarium will be a high-tech hub for education and training that can upskill students and teachers, and conduct outreach and awareness programmes for society, Subramanian said.

This project is financially supported by MPLADS (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) funds of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Atomic Energy and Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.