Compare us to the Competition
| DISCOVERY DOME |
DIGITALIS | STARLAB | |
| DOMES | |||
Size inflatable domes available |
4-10 m |
4-8 m |
5-6 m |
Walk-in Domes (that allow entry/exit during show) |
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Convertible Dome with rigid handicap entryway |
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Negative pressure open-door domes available |
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| PROJECTION | |||
Number of projected pixels on least expensive full system |
1.56 Megapixels |
0.9 Megapixels |
? |
Full HD resolution on standard single-projector system |
1920x1080 |
high end only |
1080 fisheye |
Fisheye projection available |
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Mirror projection available |
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N/A |
N/A |
Projection for Fixed Domes |
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| SYSTEMS | |||
Least expensive full system |
$24,359 |
$27,425 |
~$50,000 |
Comparable price |
$19,599 |
$27,425 |
? |
Open, unlocked display computer |
WIN or MAC |
LINUX |
? |
Modular system for local support or replacement |
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Rental or Rent-to-own available |
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| CONTENT | |||
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Discount on Premium full dome shows |
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Show fisheye movies |
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Show pre-warped movies |
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Not required |
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Show VR360 full sphere movies |
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? |
Stellarium |
Nightshade NG |
Starry Night |
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Fishtank |
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? |
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World Wide Telescope installed |
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Fulldome Games available |
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| ACCESSIBILITY | |||
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Access to Astronomy Professor |
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Special wheelchair entrance available |
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Center of dome available for best seats or demonstrations |
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Video subtitles on demand in multiple languages |
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Don't take our word for it - SEE FOR YOURSELF at our upcoming events! -
Discover the Difference!
Our unique Discovery Domes using the "
Newtonian 3" projection system from Avela blow the lid off
of expensive portable planetarium systems ... a "penny a pixel"
for the pixels that are actually projected (beware - some systems project just a part of
the available pixels!) Why get fewer pixels for more money? Come and see
us at events around the world, or schedule a demo.
Let us bid your planetarium job - we offer MORE for LESS, and we are a U.S. woman-owned small business. Are you using government funds? You may be REQUIRED to let us bid!
Designed and in daily use by planetarium professionals.
Our system
was developed by a working Space Scientist and Astronomy
professor (Patricia Reiff, Ph.D.) in cooperation with a museum educator (Carolyn Sumners, Ed.D.)
who has personally taught well over a million students in her career, mostly in a
planetarium dome. They know from experience what students and teachers want and need,
and what is most effective in a dome, and have produced over 40 planetarium shows. We are the
only portable planetarium company that creates shows, and we have our programmers continuously
upgrade our software to be the best, because we use it daily!
Fisheye or Mirror? We offer both!
Fisheye and mirror systems have their
advantages and disadvantages; that's why we offer both. Truncated fisheyes from Elumenati
offer many of the advantages of mirror systems (higher resolution, optimized for movies).
Check out our Fisheye or Mirror page
to see which system is best for you. You can even use our projection system with an optical
starball for the best of both!
Beware of Cheap Imitiation Domes!
We have seen reports from purchasers
of cheap imitation Go-Domes, that failed flame tests! Insist on a sample of the material
from YOUR DOME and
do a flame test of your own! Is that company going to still be in business if you have a problem?
All our systems come with extra material from YOUR DOME,
so you can convince yourself of the safety of YOUR system (and also let you use it to patch
any small pinholes that may occur).
We bought a cheap dome, just to see the difference, and here's what we saw:
Overlapping seams SHOW double stitching lines from the inside on all seams.
They copied our doorway, but we put in a taller doorway on 6m and up domes - one foot easier to enter!
We offer more kinds of doorways, negative pressure domes, etc
Concerned about durability
Comes with noisy "bounce house"-type blower
The Most Accessible system:
We have the most accessible handicap entry. We offer special permanently-inflated handicapped doorways, and even our normal inflated door is easily rolled into by a motorized wheelchair. Our system allows regular chairs in the back, so that folks who can't get down on the floor can watch easily.
Our system features multilanguage subtitle support for all of our shows, for the hearing impaired or for language learners - even Chinese and Arabic!
Compare to Digital Starlab:
They use an expensive fisheye system, which is good for stars, but less optimized for movies, and cannot quickly switch to a flatscreen, 360VR, or 3D movie, as we can. We offer not only fisheye systems, but also mirror systems, which provide more pixels at less cost. Remember - the sweet area (front center view) uses the BEST part of the mirror but the WORST part - the edge - of a fisheye lens. Digital Starlab is using a custom version of the Go-Dome™ domes we sell. We think our version of the design is better - a taller doorway and velcro tabs to hang banners - check us out head to head at NSTA!
Compare to Digitalis:
Their system is great if you just want stars and planets... and their remote control is nifty, but it's your ONLY access to their system. What happens if it breaks or your lose it? You can't install other software to let you show other kinds of content. Their system is omnidirectional, with the projector in the center of the dome, optimized for starfields. Our system is unidirectional, which is how most folks teach, and is better for most movies which are designed for the viewers to face forward. (see our Fisheye vs Mirror page). We only cover 90% of the dome, but the sweet spot (straight ahead) is significantly crisper and higher resolution, and the best seats in the house - the center - isn't taken up by equipment! (our projector is in the back, near the door). If we want to show the very back part of the starfield, we just rotate it into view, so the viewers don't need to crane their necks! Their standard dome is "zip up" - everyone has to enter all at once ... but our Go-Dome allows easy entry and exit, even roll-in handicapped, during a show. Their system is Linux - ours is Windows 10 or Mac OSX, so it is easy to maintain onsite and is completely modular, so you can have a spare laptop on hand or to train your staff. In emergencies you can replace our laptop, projector, or sound system yourself with no tools and minimum down time: that's what WE call modular. We have found that of the 70,000 students who learned from the Discovery Dome in Houston last year, 90% of the teachers chose educational videos aligned with their teaching objectives rather than a live star show. Certainly their system can show movies, and our system uses Stellarium to show stars and planets, so both systems can do both... so try both and see for yourself! Our MediaShow software easily allows showing just a clip of a movie, showing a flatscreen movie on just a portion of the dome (the sweet spot in front), creating your own show from a folder of images and a sound file of your choice, showing a movie with a fulldome image background, and much more. Lastly, by using videos (and video clips), the operators don't have to have the training it takes to make an effective live star show, and we can teach Earth science, human body, human evolution, climate change, as well as astronomy shows. All our shows are extensively reviewed by scientists; can your operator answer all questions accurately?
Compare to Ash Enterprises
Ash features a mirror system in fixed dome installations. They at present don't create their own portable dome, or create their own content. They are now offering a dual-mirror system which is a copy of our Newtonian dual-mirror system. Again, we are flattered by the imitation, but, again, insist on the first and the best!