Planetariums in India

A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky. A dominant feature of most planetariums is the large dome-shaped projection screen onto which scenes of stars, planets and other celestial objects can be made to appear and move realistically to simulate the complex 'motions of the heavens' . The celestial scenes can be created using a wide variety of technologies, including precision-engineered 'star balls' that combine optical and electro-mechanical technology, slide projector, video and fulldome projector systems, and lasers. Whatever technologies are used, the objective is normally to link them together to provide an accurate relative motion of the sky. Typical systems can be set to display the sky at any point in time, past or present, and often to show the night sky as it would appear from any point of latitude on Earth. The thirteenth century Italian astrologer Johannes Campanus  is said to be the planetarium pioneer. He described a planetarium in his Theorica Planetarum and included instructions on how to build one. The oldest, still working planetarium can be found in the Dutch town Franeker. It was built by Eise Eisinga  in 1781.

In India the first planetarium was set up in 1954 at new English school, Pune. At present there are about fifteen permanent planetariums in India which are fully functional and modern. There are four Birla planetariums, one each in Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Kolakata. The M. P. Birla Planetarium in Kolkata is the largest planetarium in India. The planetarium started functioning from September 29, 1962 as an educational, scientific and research institution.  Since its inception, M. P. Birla Planetarium has designed and presented more than 350 astronomical projects dealing with many facets of astronomy, astro-physics, Celestial Mechanics, Space Science, History of astronomy, Centenaries of famous astronomers as well as mythology concerning stars and planets. The Planetarium owns an astronomical observatory equipped with a Celestron C-14 Telescope with accessories such as ST6 CCD Camera, Solar Filter etc.

There are four planetariums in India named after India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru Planetariums are located in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore and there is a Jawahar Planetarium in Allahabad. The Nehru Planetarium in New Delhi is situated on the grounds of Teen Murti Bhavan, the erstwhile residence of Jawaharlal Nehru. One of the major attractions of this place is the Soyuz T-10 which carried India’s first cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma to space, along with his space suit and mission journal.

The Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai, a part of the Nehru Centre, Mumbai, was inaugurated on 3 March 1977 by the then Prime Minister of India, Smt. Indira Gandhi. Over the years, this has grown into a Centre for scientific study of astronomy and space science. The planetarium is equipped with a Digistar 3 planetarium projector.

Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium of Bangalore was founded in the year 1989. The sky theatre inside with a dome of fifteen meters in diameter has a sitting capacity of 225. The Planetarium gives the opportunity to visitors to unravel the mysteries of outer space. The Planetarium aims to provide an awareness of astronomy amongst students as well as the common public. Daily two shows are held for everyone interested in knowing the mysteries of outer space.

Indira Gandhi Planetarium, Patna is among the largest and best planetariums in Asia, the Patna Planetarium attracts a large number of domestic as well as foreign tourists. The planetarium has regular film shows on subjects related to astronomy.  In most of planetarium, special arrangements are made to watch, study and photograph Solar & Lunar eclipses, and many such other events.

The other notable Plaetariums are Priyadarshini  at Thiruvananthpuram , Kalpana Chawla Memorial Planetarium  and Raman Science centre planetarium  at Nagpur.

Modern Planetarium production facilities often include recent, scientific data in their presentations, using the output of scientific modeling software as a base for compositing, creating an aesthetically pleasing visualization of legitimate, scientific data. An increasing number of planetariums are using digital technology to replace the entire system of interlinked projectors traditionally employed around a star ball to address some of their limitations. Some planetariums mix both traditional opto-mechanical projection and digital technologies on the same dome. In a fully digital planetarium, the dome image is generated by a computer and then projected onto the dome using a variety of technologies including cathode ray tube, LCD and laser projectors.

The National Council for Science Museums, Kolkata, is setting up low-cost planetariums in many towns. These are being set up in Siliguri, Dharampur , Gulbarga, Tiruneveli, Goa, Pondicherry ,Assam and Sikkim. State government should contact NCSM for setting small planetarium to boost edutainment.

For even smaller budgets, portable  planetariums are available these days. Inflatable domes can be inflated in minutes. Such domes are often used for touring planetariums visiting schools and community centres. Thanks to International year of astronomy, Kashmir valley is also expecting a portable planetarium in near future from DST.