The Prague Planetarium is located in the Holešovice district, close to the Exhibition. Planetarium is not the same as an observatory. An observatory, such as the Štefánik, lets you look at real stars through the open dome of the telescope, but in the planetarium a starry sky is projected, simulated, on the ceiling by means of special projection equipment.
The first such projection equipment was manufactured by the German company Zeiss in 1923. Planetaria gradually spread throughout the world, and in the wake of their great success with spectators the Czech government bought one for Prague in the 1950s. But it lacked a special building to house it and eventually a location on the edge of Royal Game Park (Stromovka) was chosen.
The architect of today's Planetarium was Jaroslav Fragner. The Planetarium was opened in 1960 and was one of the most advanced in the world. Even today it ranks among one of the largest.
The original instrument which the Planetarium was equipped with is still functional, but now technically obsolete. Therefore, in the 1990s the planetarium was equipped with new projection equipment by Zeiss called the Cosmorama. Gradually additional projection technology was added, such as widescreen, all-sky panorama projection and a new laser projection system.
Interesting fact:
The Cosmorama is controlled by a system of computers. It consists of 230 projectors, 120 projection lamps and 16 engines. It can show what the sky looked like at any time in the past, but also simulate how it will look in the future. It can portray any type of solar and lunar eclipse, comets and much more.
