Observatories that I have visited:
Rijeka Observatory, Croatia 2022

Content:

1. The walkway up to Rijeka observatory
2. The panorama terrace and old wooden Newton telescopes
3. The 16" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope
4. The planetarium
5. Old archive photographs

4: The planetarium

Now we have had a guided tour at the old and new telescopes and the Panorama terrace. Left is the Planetarium, I think that is the newest they have built at this place.

Elio take us to the Southern part of the building, at the same place as the cafe is placed is the walkway down to the entrance of the planetarium.

Along this walkway there are a lot of photos with information about what have happen here at the observatory during the years. We see a lot of photos of people who had come here to look at Meteor Showers. Yuri Gagarin (Russian and the worlds first Cosmonaut) had visited the place in the 1960s. Star meetings where the visitors bring their own equipment to view the stars and take astrophotos.

More information about Yuri Gagarin:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Yuri Gagarin
(Yuri Gagarin, Wikipedia)

Elio open the door into the planetarium.

The Observatory try to inspire the youth about the universe. Here they have built rockets and a solar system model.

A rocket model someone built 2013, what is this boy/girl doing today ?

The planetarium could take more then 50 visitors, all chairs are tilted back to give a comfortable view of the screen above.

The screen is a half sphere, in the old days the planetarium projector stood in the center. It had very advanced mechanics and optics, that made them very expensive. With modern technology the projection is solved with digital projectors, in this case there are five projectors, each lights up a small part of the screen.

This modern technique make it possible to project a more dynamic play, not only static stars. To get the projectors in sync it needs a very advanced computer and software. It takes advanced calculations to get the the five projectors to display a seamless picture.

Elio explains to Gunilla how the planetarium works. It's a French projection system. One more important thing is to have an advanced sound system, a multi channel system with high level output.

Elio give us a demonstration: Hey, be ready, the show starts !

The light dims down and the sounds turn up.

The projector starts and the planetarium movie starts. It's very impressive and we enjoyed it a lot.

Follow this link if you want to know more about planetarium and its techniques:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Planetarium (Planetarium, Wikipedia)

After the show we talk more about it and the importance of children to educate them. They cooperate with the schools and often have a lot of children here.

Farewell Rijeka Observatory !

Now we must go back to Rijeka town. We say goodbye to Elio for a great day here with all exiting things we got to look at. Elio explain for us how to find the bus 7A that take us back to the town.

Thanks a lot Elio !

It was just a short staircase down from the observatory to the bus, we only had to wait 10 minutes until it arrived. It took about 15 minutes back to town. For you that don't want to walk all the way up to the observatory this is a better idea.

Follow this link if you want to know more about the Rijeka Observatory:

• https://www.rijekasport.hr/ en/ venues/ astronomical-centre-rijeka/ (Astronomical Centre Rijeka)