The first two references are simple projectors that display a section of the sky on your ceiling depending of an inbuilt picture file and may be suitable for what you want.
To have a true planetarium you need a much more sophisticated arrangement. That is why the cost is so high. This type of planetarium requires a domed projection screen and a digital projector with a fish eye lens or a special spherical mirror along with a computer that can run stellarium
The other references refer to firms that can supply this type of set up
Barry
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ok, but "e-planetarium" is the only available commercial product that use Stellarium as rendering software?
Is there a projector but cheaper than that solution?
For example, I don't need time settings (only real time is enough), and viewer coordinates can be fixed to something, set once (for example via USB and a PC).
Also fish eye lens or spherical mirror are not necessary, a simple high angle lens to cover a room ceiling is ok.
But I want Stellarium as software to drive it!
I'm thinking to something embedded like a Raspberry Pi with a cheap projector, already built, or something similar.
Last edit: efa 2014-02-03
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You can put stellarium onto any computer that has GL2 capabilities and use a standard digital projector to shine on the ceiling but a proper digital projector is still going to cost a bit.
Stellarium is designed to be used as a planetarium projector and has many useful features for this purpose. It is used in a number of commercial planetariums but they are all designed for proper projection on a domed screen driven by a standard computer.
As far as I know there is no official version of stellarium for the Rasberry. A standard PC is required with a digital projector.
Barry
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Kird your links are all about "fish eye lens or spherical mirror", I'm not interested in those expensive solutions.
I'm looking for a gadget, but using Stellarium because it is open.
I know of nothing that will produce a planetarium view of Stellarium commercially available in the price range you want. You will need to assemble something yourself.
Do you have a Rasberry Pi actually operating as a micro computer with a keyboard etc and display. There is as you say a linux pre-compiled version of Stellarium that should run if you have sufficient memory. My research says you should be able to get to this stage for around $200 depending on your technical ability.
A suitable projector is a different story. To project a useful image onto a screen You will need more than a $100 projector.
It appears that you want a $100000 planetarium for $100. What you suggest will probably work if you have the technical ability to set it all up but the results may be quite disappointing because the heart of a good planetarium is the display.
Barry
Last edit: barrykgerdes 2014-02-03
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First of all, I work in a planetarium as a student employee. I am by no means an expert but recently I spent a lot of time getting to know different vendors and projection systems.
You've been asking for a planetarium. Physical planetariums have a projector and a domed surface. The projects used for domed surfaces are very specialized and are for a niche market. The current extreme end of cheap end of fisheye projectors are DIY solutions. With the current technology, I'm fairly certain that you simply cannot get a decent planetarium for $100 without donations of equipment.
With that said, what is it exactly that you are trying to do? Do you just want a larger view of the screen to share with a crowd? A flat-screen projector connected to a laptop will do the trick. Do you want stars as a special effect or backdrop? Find a way to block most of the light coming from a bulb. Do you want an immersive experience where you're at the controls? That's digital or opto-mechanical planetarium territory.
If you're really after that immersive experience and don't want to spend the tens of thousands of dollars for the equipment, see if there's a planetarium near you and visit it. Some places with digital projectors always do star talks, some don't. (Our star talks cover the current night sky.) If you want something different than the current night sky, ask for it.
And if you really want to be at the controls, see if you can volunteer. If it's at a university, you may even be able to get a job there as a student.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
what I want to do is a gadget for my 2 years child. I want the star projection on ceiling for night, nothing expensive, nothing professional.
I saw that some commercial planetarium exist for 100$ so I thinked that one with Stellarium can be made for the same price.
But yesterday evening I made some tests and now I'm quite convinced this was a mistake.
The commercial 100$ planetarium are built using different tecnology that video projector. They use a disk with holes, so the star remain at high definition at 3 m (floor-ceiling) distance, and the background is very dark.
Using Stellarium imply use a video projector, but cheap LCD projector has the background very light, and resolution matter.
I connected a normal LCD+lamp 1024x768 projector to my notebook with Stellarium, but the result was terrible. The room become light, so become impossible sleep, and setting 800x600 the stars are square and cross not round.
The cheaper 50$ LCD+LED projector are all 320x240 so unusable.
Some 640x480 LCD+LED projector cost about 190$, but I think still unusable.
Going to 1024x768 LCD+lamp increase the cost too much for a gadget, and the lamp instead of led is too fragile for a child.
I haven't find 800x600 LCD+LED projector at cheap price.
And in any case LCD is not good for this purpose, as the background is too light. Correct if I'm wrong, but for this application I need a DLP (so expansive) projector?
Second question: what is the minimum resolution to get star as dot at 3 m distance with a 3 m sized image?
thank you
Last edit: efa 2014-02-04
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I just tested Stellarium on a remote Raspberry Pi, via server X export in SSH tunnel, so with overhead of encription.
Locally is WinXP with PuTTY for text connection and Xming server for graphics rendering.
Apart sky drag that has some latch, all the quality rendering work well and is very very good also at HD full screen.
This evening I will try the local graphics rendering (Raspberry has an accelerated 3D VGA that support OpenGL)
Last edit: efa 2014-02-04
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someone know the aswer of those two questions:
1) for this application I need a DLP (so expansive) projector, LCD background is too light so not suitable?
2) what is the minimum resolution to get star as dot at 3 m distance with a 3 m sized image?
thank you
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hi, I want to buy a commercial platenarium projector like this:
http://tinyurl.com/klr4b4l
http://tinyurl.com/kkmz8os
but I want one that use Stellarium as rendering software.
I saw that e-planetarium use Stellarium:
http://www.e-planetarium.com/stellarium.htm
but prices are from thousands to tens thousands:
http://www.e-planetarium.com/prices_projectors.htm
Is there a home commercial platenarium projector that use Stellarium?
The first two references are simple projectors that display a section of the sky on your ceiling depending of an inbuilt picture file and may be suitable for what you want.
To have a true planetarium you need a much more sophisticated arrangement. That is why the cost is so high. This type of planetarium requires a domed projection screen and a digital projector with a fish eye lens or a special spherical mirror along with a computer that can run stellarium
The other references refer to firms that can supply this type of set up
Barry
ok, but "e-planetarium" is the only available commercial product that use Stellarium as rendering software?
Is there a projector but cheaper than that solution?
For example, I don't need time settings (only real time is enough), and viewer coordinates can be fixed to something, set once (for example via USB and a PC).
Also fish eye lens or spherical mirror are not necessary, a simple high angle lens to cover a room ceiling is ok.
But I want Stellarium as software to drive it!
I'm thinking to something embedded like a Raspberry Pi with a cheap projector, already built, or something similar.
Last edit: efa 2014-02-03
Google to the rescue.
http://kriegerscience.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/how-to-make-a-planetarium/
http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Setting_up_your_own_dome_using_Stellarium%27s_spheric_mirror_distortion_feature
http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Category:User%27s_Guide
http://paulbourke.net/dome/stellarium/
You can put stellarium onto any computer that has GL2 capabilities and use a standard digital projector to shine on the ceiling but a proper digital projector is still going to cost a bit.
Stellarium is designed to be used as a planetarium projector and has many useful features for this purpose. It is used in a number of commercial planetariums but they are all designed for proper projection on a domed screen driven by a standard computer.
As far as I know there is no official version of stellarium for the Rasberry. A standard PC is required with a digital projector.
Barry
Kird your links are all about "fish eye lens or spherical mirror", I'm not interested in those expensive solutions.
I'm looking for a gadget, but using Stellarium because it is open.
Barry: Apparently Raspbian has the standard .deb package for Stellarium 0.11.3:
http://www.raspberryconnect.com/raspbian-packages-list/item/89-raspbian-science
If nothing already built is available, seems can be good a 100$ projector to connect to a Raspberry Pi.
Last edit: efa 2014-02-03
efa
I know of nothing that will produce a planetarium view of Stellarium commercially available in the price range you want. You will need to assemble something yourself.
Do you have a Rasberry Pi actually operating as a micro computer with a keyboard etc and display. There is as you say a linux pre-compiled version of Stellarium that should run if you have sufficient memory. My research says you should be able to get to this stage for around $200 depending on your technical ability.
A suitable projector is a different story. To project a useful image onto a screen You will need more than a $100 projector.
It appears that you want a $100000 planetarium for $100. What you suggest will probably work if you have the technical ability to set it all up but the results may be quite disappointing because the heart of a good planetarium is the display.
Barry
Last edit: barrykgerdes 2014-02-03
First of all, I work in a planetarium as a student employee. I am by no means an expert but recently I spent a lot of time getting to know different vendors and projection systems.
You've been asking for a planetarium. Physical planetariums have a projector and a domed surface. The projects used for domed surfaces are very specialized and are for a niche market. The current extreme end of cheap end of fisheye projectors are DIY solutions. With the current technology, I'm fairly certain that you simply cannot get a decent planetarium for $100 without donations of equipment.
With that said, what is it exactly that you are trying to do? Do you just want a larger view of the screen to share with a crowd? A flat-screen projector connected to a laptop will do the trick. Do you want stars as a special effect or backdrop? Find a way to block most of the light coming from a bulb. Do you want an immersive experience where you're at the controls? That's digital or opto-mechanical planetarium territory.
If you're really after that immersive experience and don't want to spend the tens of thousands of dollars for the equipment, see if there's a planetarium near you and visit it. Some places with digital projectors always do star talks, some don't. (Our star talks cover the current night sky.) If you want something different than the current night sky, ask for it.
And if you really want to be at the controls, see if you can volunteer. If it's at a university, you may even be able to get a job there as a student.
If you want some information on home built planetariums join the planetarium group on groups.yahoo.com
Barry
Barry: can you please link the group, as pressing search I found many rgroups related to planetarium but noone named exactly planetarium. Thanks
Last edit: efa 2014-02-04
what I want to do is a gadget for my 2 years child. I want the star projection on ceiling for night, nothing expensive, nothing professional.
I saw that some commercial planetarium exist for 100$ so I thinked that one with Stellarium can be made for the same price.
But yesterday evening I made some tests and now I'm quite convinced this was a mistake.
The commercial 100$ planetarium are built using different tecnology that video projector. They use a disk with holes, so the star remain at high definition at 3 m (floor-ceiling) distance, and the background is very dark.
Using Stellarium imply use a video projector, but cheap LCD projector has the background very light, and resolution matter.
I connected a normal LCD+lamp 1024x768 projector to my notebook with Stellarium, but the result was terrible. The room become light, so become impossible sleep, and setting 800x600 the stars are square and cross not round.
The cheaper 50$ LCD+LED projector are all 320x240 so unusable.
Some 640x480 LCD+LED projector cost about 190$, but I think still unusable.
Going to 1024x768 LCD+lamp increase the cost too much for a gadget, and the lamp instead of led is too fragile for a child.
I haven't find 800x600 LCD+LED projector at cheap price.
And in any case LCD is not good for this purpose, as the background is too light. Correct if I'm wrong, but for this application I need a DLP (so expansive) projector?
Second question: what is the minimum resolution to get star as dot at 3 m distance with a 3 m sized image?
thank you
Last edit: efa 2014-02-04
Barry: I had two Raspberry at home. I use one as media player connected to an old TV, and the second one is used for domotics/home automation and some advanced allarm functions.
An (Oxford-Cambridge) Raspberry Pi cost about 27 euro:
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/processor-microcontroller-development-kits/7568308/
or 35$:
http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?SKU=70229569
and power consumption is 3 W.
Last edit: efa 2014-02-04
I just tested Stellarium on a remote Raspberry Pi, via server X export in SSH tunnel, so with overhead of encription.
Locally is WinXP with PuTTY for text connection and Xming server for graphics rendering.
Apart sky drag that has some latch, all the quality rendering work well and is very very good also at HD full screen.
This evening I will try the local graphics rendering (Raspberry has an accelerated 3D VGA that support OpenGL)
Last edit: efa 2014-02-04
Hi efa
I don't have that info on the yahoo group. You will need to find one yourself.
As I said before I don't know of any commercial devices like what you are looking for.
You will need to design and build it yourself
Barry
someone know the aswer of those two questions:
1) for this application I need a DLP (so expansive) projector, LCD background is too light so not suitable?
2) what is the minimum resolution to get star as dot at 3 m distance with a 3 m sized image?
thank you