Sardar Patel Planetarium closed for 4th day, no special event for Chandryaan-3 landing

Officials said that the digital theatre of the planetarium that facilitates the observation of planets, moon, stars, and nebula, displayed on a full dome through a projector, has been closed for the last four days as a “panel” has malfunctioned.

“The panel of the Zeiss projector of the planetarium developed a snag that resulted in a shot circuit. Since the projector itself is outdated, we are trying our best to source the spare part; it is not commonly available now. The planetarium has been closed for four days. In any case, we did not have any plan to hold the Chandrayaan-3 live screening as ISRO was to beam it live and people could watch it from a comfortable space. We do not have any experts in astronomy in Vadodara that could add any more value to the screening… Regarding the restoration of the projector, we will decide the further course of action in a couple of days as a new machine would cost about Rs 7 crore and upwards,” Dr Pratyush Patankar, In-charge Director of the Planetarium, told The Indian Express.

Patankar added that a proposal was in the pipeline to introduce more astronomical models in the facility that can be informative and interactive. The planetarium has engaged a consultant to prepare a cost estimate for the same, which will then be sent for approval to the Standing Committee.

The planetarium has three shows daily, except on Thursday, operated through the Space Master Projector in English, Hindi, and Gujarati.

A senior official of the VMC, on conditions of anonymity, said the civic body had “not considered” changing the projector at the planetarium as it was a ‘low-revenue’ generating facility.

“The return on investment in a new projector — that could easily cost about Rs 10-12 crores —  does not seem worth it given that the revenue generated by the facility is meagre. Of course, we do not want to leave the planetarium closed and there is a plan to introduce more activities. We will try to repair the projector, as it has been done in the past too. If it does not suffice, we will see if we can purchase a new projector through a special grant,” the official said.