It’s more than the two-ton, metal, UFO look-alike in the middle of the room.
And it’s more than the creator of a far-reaching star show across the ceiling of the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.
The Zeiss Model VI Star Projector is a community legacy, and its death is imminent.
A symbol of the planetarium, it will be completely phased out by September to make room for a new digital projection system.
The 42-year-old Zeiss projector was designed for 25 years of use, and when planetarium Director Todd Boyette joined in 2006, the projector was 37 years old.
Boyette said he quickly saw that the machine’s age could represent a liability for the planetarium. If it broke, it would have been hard to fix, he said.
“There was no choice,” he said. “The Zeiss had to be replaced.”
The $1.5 million transition to the digital system was fully funded by GlaxoSmithKline through a grant a few years before the upgrade, Boyette said.
The planetarium shifted to a digital system in January 2010 and the Zeiss projector has been gradually phased out since then. The only programs still performed with the Zeiss projector are the programs for school children. The last show in the GlaxoSmithKline Fulldome Theater will be May 6.