The Staerkel Planetarium is a true world-class facility.
The planetarium machine is the real star of the planetarium theatre, but like any star, there is a huge supporting cast. About sixty hidden projectors provide the ability to show single slides, and multi-screen panoramas. A group of six specially-placed projectors cover the entire dome with awesome "All-Sky" images, which seem to transform the theatre into any imaginable place.

There are over one hundred small, special purpose projectors designed to represent rotating galaxies, black holes, quasars, pulsars, and other astronomical objects. There are projectors for snow, rain, smoke, and fire. There are some "special effects" that are purely for fun, like those of a dance club.

Three video projectors provide extra-large television screens-- two are about 400 inches, measured diagonally. The central video projector is about 450 inches diagonally, and can project computer visuals.

A 35 mm movie projector displays an image covering about one-third of the planetarium dome. Science films and others with a variety of subjects are available

...And it's computer controlled With so much equipment, there is too much for one person to do, and not much room for several.....so there is a special computer system operating nearly all of the equipment. The computer follows a time code from the audio tape so that the visuals are always in sync with the sound.