Free Fulldome Material for Planetariums

With our upcoming ESO Supernova — Planetarium and Visitor Centre here in Garching in mind, the ESO education and Public Outreach Department has started producing high-quality material for use in fulldome planetarium shows in the facility from 2017. As part of our mandate to communicate astronomy as widely as possible, we are now making this material available for free to other planetariums.

The first initiative we have undertaken in this respect is the ESO Ultra HD Expedition, where four world-renowned astrophotographers travelled to Chile to capture the Universe in ultra HD and fulldome format. We would like to share the fulldome results of the expedition through these dynamic links, which will update as more materials become available:

• UHD fulldome stills (fish-eye, 4K) (adding to ESO’s collection of fulldome stills)
• UHD fulldome timelapses (fish-eye, 4K) (adding to ESO’s collection of fulldome clips)
• UHD 360 degree panoramas (adding to ESO’s collection of 360 degree panoramas)

Planetarium producers can access the material in full resolution directly from our ESO website, and it is free to use, provided that the material is credited. All our materials are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, and are available in the highest resolution available online.

We hope that these fulldome resources will help to create a lasting impression on planetarium visitors, transporting them to the fascinating sites of Chile, where our observatories are based, as we seek to bring the Universe closer than ever before.

We look forward to sharing more planetarium materials in the near future.