Presentation Information
[O18-01]The Spacemaster Reborn
*Alexandre Cherman1, Gustavo Jordão 2, Fernando Vieira1, Renato Pellizzari1 (1. Rio de Janeiro Planetarium (Brazil), 2. Goiânia Planetarium (Brazil))
Keywords:
Planetarium,Spacemaster,Star field
The SPACEMASTER space flight planetarium was first presented by ZEISS in Jena in 1967. It was designed for medium dome sizes of 12.5 m to 17.5 m in diameter. Just a year later, Brazilian government began talks with the East Germany Government to exchange commodities. The deals covered many areas of business and one in particular was mostly the trade of sugar and coffee for optical instruments. And thus Brazil got its five Spacemaster projectors! The Rio de Janeiro Planetarium was established in 1970 under the premise that it would hold one such projector. It’s Galileo Dome, 12.5m, 130 seats, proudly opened in Nov. 19, 1970. The Spacemaster projector marveled the audience continuously until 2011. And then it was decommissioned. The Galileo Dome went digital. Until now! In an effort to restore not only a historical equipment, but also the bright, crisp starfield from Zeiss, the Rio Planetarium has reinstalled its original planetarium in the dome! Since Zeiss declined the task, for the projector was old and had been out-of-work for 14 years, the Rio Planetarium staff had to make some adaptations, but in Nov. 19, 2025, as the Rio Planetarium celebrated its 55th anniversary, the original Spacemaster was back in business.