Now you can reach out and touch the stars without leaving Cape Town

The universe is expanding‚ but so is our capacity to be bamboozled by it.

Cape Town’s new Iziko planetarium and digital dome allows visitors to travel through Saturn’s rings‚ skim past the Hubble Telescope and race to the outer reaches of the universe‚ all in the comfort of a reclining chair.

“Armchair travel to the furthest reaches of the universe is now possible‚” said Iziko Museums CE Rooksana Omar‚ one of several dignitaries who spoke at a media preview of the upgraded planetarium adjoining the Company’s Garden.

“The very latest technology has been installed‚ making it unique on the African continent‚” he said.

Instead of gazing up at a simulated South African night sky‚ visitors are now treated to a digital extravaganza of shooting stars‚ planets‚ black holes and spiral galaxies thanks to a multimillion-rand investment in cutting-edge‚ high-definition visual technology.

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One of the wonderful graphic projections at the opening of the new 4D planetarium by Iziko Museums in Cape Town. Photo by Ruvan Boshoff

A series of laser video projectors simulate space travel in eye-popping detail‚ in some cases using actual images of celestial objects.

Pluto appears in graphic detail‚ complete with mountain ranges and a wide glacier field. The lights of Cape Town become a pinprick in galactic space as the camera pans out to take in a broad sweep of the solar system.

Significantly‚ the technology can also simulate other unlikely destinations‚ such as the inside of an atom‚ the human brain or the depths of the ocean.

The museum’s bosses hope to foster scientific collaboration and exploration by turning the planetarium into a scientific tool as well as a visitor centre.

By putting data into the facility’s computers‚ scientists can use the 140-seater dome to visualise number sets‚ such as those generated by the Southern African Large Telescope in Sutherland or the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope near Carnarvon in the Karoo.

“Some data sets can be understood only if you can see them and see them big‚” said Bongani Ndhlovu‚ Iziko Museums’ executive director of core functions.

“Modern science is about cooperation. This takes it to a new level‚” he said.

The upgrade‚ which cost more than R30-million‚ continues a proud tradition of galactic gazing at the 60-year-old planetarium‚ which is now among an elite group of planetariums with the new “8K” visual technology — with resolution about 24 times that of a normal high-definition screen.

The funders include the University of Cape Town‚ University of the Western Cape‚ Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the Department of Arts and Culture. The implementing agent is the National Research Foundation.

Ndhlovu said the new planetarium would enable scientists “to communicate complicated content to the ordinary man”.

“We hope it will stimulate young South Africans to study further‚” he said.