STUNNING images like those captured by NASA's James Webb telescope could be live-streamed directly to Orange once the state-of-the-art planetarium is opened.
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President of Orange Planetarium Incorporated Rod Somerville has finally, but cautiously, allowed himself to consider the variety and scope of events that will be brought to life at the planetarium, after last week's NSW Government funding announcement.
Arts Minister Ben Franklin, with Orange mayor Jason Hamling, announced $5 million for the city's ambitious Orange Regional Conservatorium and Planetarium project, with the funding to sit alongside a $10 million pledge from the Federal Government, matched by $10 million from Orange City Council.
But it's been long-time coming for Orange Planetarium Inc, with Mr Somerville, who was in Broken Hill when the final funding announcement was made, recalling a meeting 18 years ago with a fellow astronomy buff where the plan for Orange to have a link with the stars was hatched.
Back then, the goal was for an observatory until Mr Somerville, who has physics and maths degrees and a background in communicating science to the public, suggested Orange's fickle weather would come into play.
"The weather's not fabulous in Orange in terms of the number of clear days so I kind of convinced them that a better way to go would be a planetarium because it's weather-independent.
"It's something we can do all the time."
Since then it's been almost two decades of radio chats, newspaper columns (some may remember Mr Somerville's Stargazing was a regular installment in the CWD) and lobbying stakeholders in a bid to raise awareness and support for the project.
To win the funding for the project, Orange Planetarium Inc. formed the partnership with the Orange Regional Conservatorium about five years ago after both groups were advised they had a better chance with a combined project.
"And that turned out to be the case," Mr Somerville said.
The smaller partner in the $25 million civic block development, The Planetarium will account for about 20 per cent of the floor space and cost of the project and will share common areas with the conservatorium, including the foyer and amenities.
Its share of funding will also cover its state-of-the-art equipment, including projectors, computers and lighting, and the building fitout.
"It is very specialised equipment," Mr Somerville said. "There are a number of planetarium providers around the world that build this sort of stuff, some a tad more expensive than others.
"We're going for the best which also turns out to be one of the cheaper ones.
"Originally planetariums really just projected the night sky, star images and so on, then with side projectors we would be able to project an image of a planet or something like that but they were optical instruments, fairly big, round, clunky looking things.
"These days off course with computers, things are a little bit easier. We [will] have a number of projectors hidden around the bottom of the dome that do the projecting onto the dome itself and they're all controlled by a computer system."
Star fields and pictures similar to those beamed back from the James Webb telescope will be available to the planetarium but Mr Somerville said there was potential for other imagery.
"Certainly. These days with computer technology and the internet and whatever, we would be able to so things like stream those images as they're released by NASA and whoever, directly to the dome.
"But in the back of our minds, and we have to have discussions and planning, but even things like out at the mines, getting one of the trucks that drives underground, to have the cameras on top and film what it's like to go down into the mine.
"It's not just space, it's not just astronomy, it's really quite versatile. Obviously space and astronomy is the major component of it all because historically that's what [planetariums] are built for but more and more content is being developed for other purposes."
Mr Somerville said the plans by architects Brewster-Hjorth for the whole complex were almost complete and construction is expected to take around 18 months after building tenders are called.
The first sod is expected to be turned early next year and that's when Mr Somerville admitted he will finally believe 18 years of planning and campaigning has been worth it.
"After 18 years I loathe to actually let myself get excited at this particular moment," he said.
"But if everything goes the way as planned, it will be one of the best planetariums in the country."
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