Upgrades make Hammond Planetarium even more of a destination

Check out this season's planetarium shows! - now through December 12

The HFC Hammond Planetarium (Room J-102) in the Science Building (Building J on the main campus) underwent some major upgrades that have improved the visitor experience.

HFC Planetarium director Jesse Mason, who also teaches physics and astronomy at the College, shared the details.

Upgrade 1: Constellation art projectors have been installed. “Now when we point out the Big Dipper and Orion constellations, we can project an image of the corresponding object superimposed over the stars,” said Mason. “We couldn’t do that before.”

Upgrade 2: A lift for the starball has been installed, so the starball will no longer cast a shadow on the dome when using the full-dome projector.

Upgrade 3: An iPad is used for remote control. The starball is no longer anchored to the console, so it can be run from anywhere in the Planetarium.

Upgrade 4: The full-dome projector has been upgraded and shows clearer, brighter images for all the video footage in the seasonal shows and crisp displays of OpenSpace (see below).

Upgrade 5: A new computer has been installed, which has enabled the use of OpenSpace software on the full-dome projector. OpenSpace is a 3-dimensional virtual space environment software that integrates the latest data from space probes.

“Now, we can show attendees what space looks like from Earth, and also what space looks like from space. We can fly to the moon and inspect craters, visit probes on Mars, or even leave our home galaxy! It's breathtakingly cool!” said Mason. “I also want to thank Joe Zitnik and his IT team for their enthusiastic support of this project and for getting the new computer installed in record time.”

Upgrade 6: The Planetarium’s seasonal shows are being updated. New lines of code are being written and tested for the operating system that runs the shows to incorporate some of the new features like the starball lift and constellation projectors. OpenSpace is being used for impromptu demonstrations and will soon be used to replace the full-dome video used in seasonal shows.

“It will also be a main feature in a forthcoming show I'm writing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Edwin Hubble's discovery of the expanding universe, proving the existence of galaxies beyond our Milly Way. This laid the groundwork for the Big Bang Theory,” explained Mason.

Planetarium shows run until mid-December

You can witness firsthand the upgrades at the Fall 2025 shows at the Hammond Planetarium, which are free and open to the public.

For safety reasons, the Planetarium will not admit latecomers after the doors close, so please arrive 15 minutes early (no later than 7:15 p.m.). Registration is not required but is recommended. Open seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

For questions or more information, contact planetarium@hfcc.edu.