Powered by the Planetarium

As the Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium celebrates its 50th anniversary, visitors stepping inside and looking up may momentarily forget they’re still on campus. A night sky fills the dome. Planets glide into view. A show can shift in seconds from Tucson’s constellations to the surface of Mars. Crisp, immersive, and smooth enough to feel effortless.

That “effortless” experience is the result of serious computing power and a thoughtful technology stack managed by Shiloe Fontes, Planetarium and Technology Manager.

At the core of the planetarium is a rack of servers that drives the visuals in real time. “We have a set of RTX Lovelace cards that are basically running everything on the fly,” Fontes said. Those graphic processing units (GPUs) process the graphics and send them to a pair of JVC laser projectors that are digitally blended at the center, creating a single seamless image across the dome.

It’s the latest chapter in a technology story that stretches back to Flandrau’s early days. Fontes described the planetarium’s first major system, which arrived from Japan in the 1970s and served audiences for decades. Later came a beloved star projector known as “Hector,” a mechanical marvel with moving components – “eyes” that opened and closed and carefully designed “planet cages” that kept projections visible without losing them in shadow.

Even then, Flandrau was experimenting with immersive storytelling. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the planetarium used early fulldome film footage captured with giant lenses and dramatic setups, including aerial filming.

A major shift arrived in 2014 when Flandrau installed its first fully digital fulldome system, a server-based setup paired with JVC projectors. That upgrade expanded what was possible: not just showing a planet, but traveling to it. “Touring the Planets went from just a slideshow to actually getting to tour the solar system,” Fontes said. Today, the tools can pull in high-resolution datasets, making it possible to “land” on Mars and view detailed surface textures and reliefs. The best part, Fontes added, is that the system handles it with room to spare.

Software is just as central to the audience experience as hardware. Fontes pointed to Uniview for live star programming and growing excitement around OpenSpace, an open-source data visualization platform developed by NASA and research partners that allows audiences to explore real astronomical datasets in three dimensions,  along with creative tools like Blender and Final Cut used to produce custom shorts, interviews, and dome content. That combination supports public shows and campus goals, too.

As an integral part of the educational institution, Flandrau hosts university classes each semester, including astronomy and planetary science courses taught in the theater. Fontes said faculty have seen measurable differences when teaching in the planetarium environment. The space also supports work across concentrations from fine arts projects to graduate dissertation defenses, plus poetry readings, film discussions, and collaborative performances that blend science, music, and the humanities.

Keeping the technology current comes with a familiar challenge: funding. Servers and components age out, and each future upgrade depends on champions who believe in the planetarium’s mission.

For Fontes, that mission is personal. A Tucson native, she still remembers visiting Flandrau on a second-grade field trip, the moment that sparked a lifelong connection. Now, her favorite part of the job is watching visitors experience that same awe. “Seeing and hearing the sound and the awe when you pull the night sky up for the first time for them will never get old,” Fontes said.

And for many students – future scientists, artists, and storytellers alike – that first look up may be the start of something big.