A few months ago, we officially retired the Zeiss Mark VI Star Projector at Morehead Planetarium. We’d had it for 42 years and it served us well. However, the ol’ Zeiss had been getting old and despite the heroic efforts by our Chief Technician, Steve Nichols, to keep it going the decision was made to put ‘er down. And since we added a digital system to our planetarium over a year ago, we were able to just roll on forward. However, before the Zeiss was dismantled, we thought we’d shoot some footage of it and put together a short tribute video. RIP Zeiss.
A Tribute to the Zeiss Mark VI Star Projector
by Jay Heinz
October 20, 2011 | 5 comments | Gear, When in Dome
Comments
There are 5 comments for this post.
Wonderful video! That was a special machine and it did a wonderful job showing the sky and training the astronauts during the Mercury to Apollo era. While it will be missed, your new digital system is awesome and will usher in many new opportunities.
Cheers,
Shawn Laatsch
Planetarium Manager – Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaiii
Thanks, Shawn. Although it’s sad to see it leave, its time has passed. And as you know, we’re having a lot of fun with the digital system.
The same projector was at the Hayden for many years, and I miss watching it twirl sometimes. Thanks for the video; it gave us a smile.
Great tribute to a fascinating masterwork of engineering! I’ve visited the planetarium in Stuttgart, Germany a few month ago. They have preserved their Zeiss Mark VI A (A means “automatic” – it’s the only one Zeiss manufactured of this type) as exhibit in the entrance hall. Nice to know, that such a “giant’s dumbbell” will survive.
Anyway congratulation to the new digital system!
Another old timer bites the dust..