Technical Museum Zagreb

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The Planetarium

In the centre of a round room with a dome, whose inner diameter amounts to eight meters, a Kleinplanetarium projector of the type ZKP-1 manufactured by the German Karl Zeiss Jena plant has been set, provided by the Croatian Natural Sciences Society. Since its opening (on 18 May, 1965), the planetarium has been constantly open for public use. So far, it has hosted over 300,000 visitors in over 10,000 shows.

The planetarium includes a simulation of starry skies with over 5,000 stars projected onto the dome interior, achieved by means of an optical system consisting of 31 elements, each one projecting a part of the sky. The artificial stars' distribution, as well as their individual glows, enable the visual impression of a starry sky otherwise seen only under truly ideal conditions. Special projectors are used to show the Sun and the Moon (with its tides), planets, the Milky Way, and other starry sky features in their exact positions. By turning the projector, it is possible to simulate the apparent daily movement of the starry sky and present its appearance in any time of the night or of the year. The projector also enables starry sky presentation from various latitudes, ranging from equator to the north pole.