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Planetarium Projectors

Thalestris24

By Thalestris24
in The Astro Lounge

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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I came across the Sega Flux and saw it briefly demoed on YouTube. It made me think it would be really cool to project on to the ceiling and be able to fall asleep under the stars (yep, I'm an incurable romantic at heart!). Anyway, has anybody got/used one? They seem quite expensive for what they are, though. Got me thinking, surely one could adapt a led projector whilst running Stellarium? Maybe need a different lens that would give a wider projection than normal. Any thoughts?

Louise

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Thalestris24
Thalestris24

I came across the Sega Flux and saw it briefly demoed on YouTube. It made me think it would be really cool to project on to the ceiling and be able to fall asleep under the stars (yep, I'm an incurabl

bish
bish

I have a planetarium projector. Never opened up the casing but it looks to be a standard projector which goes through a fish eye lens. Stellarium works well with it.  

JamesF
JamesF

3d print a mechanical one James

Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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18 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

I came across the Sega Flux and saw it briefly demoed on YouTube. It made me think it would be really cool to project on to the ceiling and be able to fall asleep under the stars (yep, I'm an incurable romantic at heart!). Anyway, has anybody got/used one? They seem quite expensive for what they are, though. Got me thinking, surely one could adapt a led projector whilst running Stellarium? Maybe need a different lens that would give a wider projection than normal. Any thoughts?

Louise

Anyone?

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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Just now, bish said:

I have a planetarium projector. Never opened up the casing but it looks to be a standard projector which goes through a fish eye lens. Stellarium works well with it.  

Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I was thinking a fisheye would do it, but don't know if you can change the lens in a standard LED projector. Can I ask which one you have? Are you pleased with it?

Cheers

Louise

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JOC

JOC

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Don't buy a cheap one.  My mother was tempted by a magazine picture, but object projects no resemblance to actual star constellations on the ceiling.  Instead it is just a disordered array of white blobs.

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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Just now, JOC said:

Don't buy a cheap one.  My mother was tempted by a magazine picture, but object projects no resemblance to actual star constellations on the ceiling.  Instead it is just a disordered array of white blobs.

Oh dear... I was thinking of getting a standard LED projector which I could use as is fo projecting tv etc. and maybe adapting it to also project astro things onto the ceiling. It's just an idea, and am musing over it.

Louise

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bish

bish

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11 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I was thinking a fisheye would do it, but don't know if you can change the lens in a standard LED projector. Can I ask which one you have? Are you pleased with it?

Cheers

Louise

I think it is BenQ. Sorry I would go and check for you but it's packed away in the garage and I am typing from bed. Certainly not an expensive one and I project in a 6 meter dome.

 

You dont get the pin point stars that you would with a mechanical projector though.

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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3 minutes ago, bish said:

I think it is BenQ. Sorry I would go and check for you but it's packed away in the garage and I am typing from bed. Certainly not an expensive one and I project in a 6 meter dome.

 

You dont get the pin point stars that you would with a mechanical projector though.

Ok, thanks

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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Just now, JamesF said:

3d print a mechanical one :D

James

I'd like to project Stellarium :) When I was at Uni we had an old version of Stellarium projected on to the roof of the dome at our observatory. I don't know what was used to do the projection, unfortunately, though it was likely quite a few years old! If I could manage to cobble something together, I'd be happy.

Louise

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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7 minutes ago, JamesF said:

This looks more like what you might have had at Uni:

http://paulbourke.net/dome/stellarium/

Not entirely practical for home use, perhaps.

James

May well have been - I didn't get the chance to ask/find out at the time. IIRC it wasn't colour and seemed rather poor compared to Stellarium on my PC. I've had a quick look at 360 deg projectors and standard home projectors. They can get rather pricey and I wouldn't want to spend more than ~£150. I was also thinking it would be nice to project tv onto a wall sometimes. Maybe I'd settle for a standard projector that I could optionally just point at the ceiling or the wall :) . I use my pc as a tv via a 27" monitor so it would be good to have a bigger picture sometimes. 4k projectors are rather pricey too, but maybe a hd one would do. Of course, I have the Oculus Rift S to play with :) I need to swap it over to the new graphics card - should be a better experience on that.

Louise

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discardedastro

discardedastro

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Just now, JamesF said:

I think I saw a web page where someone had used a "standard" projector and some sort of lens construction to make a ceiling projection.  Let me see if I can find it again...

James

At $dayjob-1 we did something similar for "surround video" research (back before VR was a thing and all the cool kids started waving headsets about) which used a projector shining onto a cheap reflecting hemisphere.

Definitely not as good as a fisheye lens, I'm sure, but did I mention it was very cheap? Publicly funded research department didn't have funds for fancy optics!

The main thing I'd be thinking about is power and noise - most cheap projectors will be regular bulbs which have loud fans to cool (LEDs aren't much better). Plus power and bulb consumption factor in.

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Thalestris24

Thalestris24

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1 minute ago, JamesF said:

I think I saw a web page where someone had used a "standard" projector and some sort of lens construction to make a ceiling projection.  Let me see if I can find it again...

James

Well a flat ceiling projection is no different from a wall. Maybe a 45 deg mirror attachment would make it easier.

Louise

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