FAQ

A planetarium is a theater with a large, domed screen that projects dynamic imagery in front of, above, and behind the audience to create a shared immersive experience. Most planetaria are stationary, contained within schools, universities, and science museums, but portable planetaria—such as the Solstice planetarium—also exist, providing the same experience on a smaller, more portable scale. Most planetarium programming is focused on space science, but can also cover content within the fields of biology, chemistry, history, and more.

Solstice Outreach uses a portable planetarium dome to give our shows. That means you can see a show anywhere, anytime! We give shows only by reservation, which can be requested by following the instructions on our Contact page. At this time, we are only able to do private shows by reservation. 

Currently, our team is based in and around Columbus, Ohio. At this time we are only accepting reservations at locations within two hours of Columbus. Please note that some exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis—if you aren't sure, reach out to us and we would be happy to discuss with you!

When fully inflated, the Solstice portable planetarium dome has the following specifications:

• Height: 3.2m (~10.5ft)

• Diameter: 5m (~16ft)

• Seating: 25 adults or 40 young children

The planetarium dome is transported in a suitcase-sized duffel bag and takes approximately fifteen minutes to set up. 

The planetarium projector is designed to operate with a voltage of 100-240 VAC and a frequency of 50-60 Hz. The projector consumes a maximum power of 770 watts during operation. Both the projector and the blower can be plugged into a standard 120 VAC Edison wall socket.

We can set the dome up anywhere with a minimum clearance of 11ft upwards and 20ft side to side. Unfortunately, the dome cannot be set up outside. When requesting a show, please take into consideration where you would like the dome to be set up!

Planetarium shows are given by astronomy, physics, and Earth science undergraduate and graduate students at The Ohio State University. We work closely with the Arne Slettebak Planetarium to ensure our presenters are equivalently trained, and many of our presenters have presented both with Solstice and at the Slettebak.

Solstice Outreach uses Sky-Skan’s DigitalSky™ Dark Matter software, which provides real-time science exploration and the ability to import images, videos, and 3D models for custom programming. This same software is used by the American Museum of Natural History, Boston Museum of Science, NASA, National Geographic, the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, and dozens of other universities and science museums around the world. 

Our planetarium is a Digitalis Digitarium® 5m inflatable dome, which provides an easily portable, high-quality domed projection screen designed and assembled in the USA. We use the Digitalis Digitarium® Theta 2 projector model, which is a laser-phosphor model with high-contrast 2160 pixel diameter imagery.