Well the reason I ask is because it IS an extra fee at pretty much every other museum I go too and the price is always stupid high for thing. I never pay for it because it just pisses me off. Houston is my most recent one that i said "no" to. I'm extremely happy to see that OKC didn't do the same thing. It does beg the question of if the sponsorship will be enough to keep it operating or if it will end up getting worn down from lack of funding though.

Isn't just a bigger version of what they had before in a nicer building? The old planetarium recently had a big tech upgrade and I think they just moved a lot of that tech over. I'm cautiously optimistic that they will prioritize it for maintenance funding.

Isn't just a bigger version of what they had before in a nicer building? The old planetarium recently had a big tech upgrade and I think they just moved a lot of that tech over. I'm cautiously optimistic that they will prioritize it for maintenance funding.

I have not been in yet, but i do not think that this is accurate. The "new" gear is several years old already. Granted, decades newer than what was in there before with the mechanical monster. It was a big improvement over what was there before for sure. But it also wasn't exactly awe inspiring. It was basically a couple of projectors used to display canned "spacey" scenes through the proper lens to make it curve on the dome. From my understanding of the new space, it's supposed to be a lot more "experience" with a proper sound system with a proper "show". The team running the old show did a good job with what they had. Often those teenagers made it more interesting than some of the older staff too, so I am in no way trying to take things away from them. But i do not think it's accurate to say that they are just moving the projectors from one room to the other.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium090824a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium090824b.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium090824c.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium090824d.jpg

Now that's cool! Nice job, Pete!

Back to red huh, cool. I always liked it more when it stood out like that.

Faded blue was appropriate for its abandon state it was in. Great to see the red back!

Faded blue was appropriate for its abandon state it was in. Great to see the red back!

I guess red for "Loves?"

The previous shade of blue (not faded) made more sense from a graphic design standpoint since their logo is black and blue.

I guess red for "Loves?"

The previous shade of blue (not faded) made more sense from a graphic design standpoint since their logo is black and blue.

Or red to pay homage to the buildings history.

Or red to pay homage to the buildings history.

That's what i was thinking. It's open again, so lets make it stand out again instead of painting it to blend in and acting like those millions spent on the imax stuff weren't wasted.....

Or red to pay homage to the buildings history.

What history?

What history?

The original Omnidome was painted red when it opened in 2000. They painted it blue during the rebranding. To me, having your marquee attraction standout makes Science look 'more fun' to kids.
https://www.sciencemuseumok.org/history

The original Omnidome was painted red when it opened in 2000. They painted it blue during the rebranding.
https://www.sciencemuseumok.org/history

Thanks, did not know that, was gone from 1995 - 2009. Volunteered there when it first opened back in the 1970s and didn't remember anything from then until we left OKC that would have made sense about red being a part of their history.

Thanks, did not know that, was gone from 1995 - 2009. Volunteered there when it first opened back in the 1970s and didn't remember anything from then until we left OKC that would have made sense about red being a part of their history.

Sorry, I guess I should have specified that particular dome structures history, not the building as a whole.

I really wish they would have built a new world class science complex downtown and turned this current facility into one of the best Aviation Musuems in the world.

The new Love’s Planetarium is set for a grand opening Friday, September 20th.

https://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium090824b.jpg


Located inside Science Museum Oklahoma, the new $8 million facility required years of planning and construction at 2020 Remington Place next to the Oklahoma City Zoo.

Admission is free upon purchase of entry to the museum and public performances in the planetarium will commence at 2 PM on Friday.

The cutting-edge technology features a unique hybrid optical and digital projection system, creating a realistic night sky, complete with maximum-quality stars, nebulae, and clusters. Using high-intensity LEDs and fiber optics, the system generates approximately 8 million detailed stars to recreate the Milky Way. Spectators can visualize history, re-live generational stories, and connect to new discoveries through projected constellations, the sun, the moon, and other planets.

The museum is promoting the facility as "world-class".

Once open, various shows are scheduled hourly every day.


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium091624a.jpg

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium070124a.jpg

https://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium090824d.jpg

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium110222f.jpg

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium110222c.jpg

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium110222d.jpg

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium110222a.jpg

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium1102222.jpg

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/planetarium110222y.jpg

I kind of want to go to the Omniplex (ok, fine, Science Museum) without the kids (too young, they would want to go play) and hit all the planetarium's shows that day. This sounds awesome!

I kind of want to go to the Omniplex (ok, fine, Science Museum) without the kids (too young, they would want to go play) and hit all the planetarium's shows that day. This sounds awesome!

No no, you're correct, it's the Omniplex and always will be the Omniplex.

Its the Omniplex Science Museum. We can drop the Oklahoma, everyone should know what state and city were in.

not those from outside of Oklahoma.

Just a warning, but make sure you see an interactive show. I saw a cartoon about a hamster. I was extremely disappointed, but my son was too tired to wait for a real show.

We went out of our way to see an interactive show this past Friday afternoon at the new planetarium at SMO.

Some background, I remember when SMO switched to the previous projector setup in 2018 in the old Kirkpatrick Planetarium, it was quite a leap from what they had previously, so given all of the hype about this upgrade, we had high expectations going in.

Unfortunately, what a disappointment.

The new planetarium is arranged in typical theatre seating from back to front and pitched at rising incline, unlike the previous one that was 360 degrees with every seat looking up at the center and all on the same level. So there are good seats, and bad seats. My advice, take a seat at the back of the auditorium, if you sit in the front, there will be things behind you on the dome that you can not see. The overall space actually seems smaller than the previous planetarium. As in less seats for each show. This may not be true, but it certainly felt that way. There is a single door entrance, and single door exit. The previous one had an interior breezeway on both double door entrances and exits so that if someone left the show midway, there was little light pollution to be reflected back into the dark auditorium; not the case in the new one. The entrance and exit awkwardly wrap around the existing dome, creating poor crowd egress and allow light to enter into the space. You enter and exit on the 2nd floor. The queuing area is placed before the steps into the new planetarium, keep this in mind if you have a stroller or mobility issues, I am not sure why line queuing isn't on the same level. In our case, the crowd wrapped back to the elevator and back side of Power Play as we waited to enter on the 2nd floor. With the new seating arrangement, the show presenters load the auditorium like open seating on Southwest airlines. Essentially moving people around and discouraging middle open seats to fill in the space.

There is now a star projector in the center of the new space, which under the old planetarium would have been fine as all eyes can equally look up at the center focal point, in this setup, it actually blocks parts of the screen as the axis of your eyes crosses the center placed projector to the screen. Additionally there was a part of the show using the center projector showing stars, but light is shot in all directions as both northern and southern hemisphere constellations are shown, but the audience is literally blinded by bright white spots as the southern hemisphere stars go below the dome screen and shoot in all directions at the audience.

The resolution and screen brightness compared to the old Kirkpatrick planetarium is comparable. From my perspective, the projectors didn't seem any brighter or sharper in resolution. This was probably the biggest disappointment as we were hoping it would be like the jump from HD TV to a 4K OLED TV. It literally looked exactly the same as it did previously.

As for the growing pains, I'll give them a break on the new space in regards to the show itself as they have only had a week in the new space. The show crashed two or three times during the presentation, and all of us set in the dark for about 90 seconds a few times as the computer restarted and watched the presenter's laser pointer dance across a blank screen.

As for the rest of the Science Museum, the old planetarium has been completely removed and now just open space with new carpet on the main floor. SMO has rearranged the existing floor exhibits to try to fill in this newly created empty space. If you enjoy liminal spaces, SMO is unfortunately filled with them.

As for the $8 million price tag on the planetarium, I can only guess the majority of costs was construction in retrofitting the old OmniDome. The actual technology didn't seem too different than what they previously had in the old planetarium.

As for the $8 million price tag on the planetarium, I can only guess the majority of costs was construction in retrofitting the old OmniDome. The actual technology didn't seem too different than what they previously had in the old planetarium.

I was holding back on my criticism since I didn't actually see the interactive show, but in my opinion, it wasn't a very good investment (unless they do something with all the empty space they created). They would have been better off if they just built a bigger planetarium right in the middle of the exhibit hall for half the price. A lot of people, myself included, thought the OmniDome would have been a great fit for it. The reality was it was an expensive retrofit just to awkwardly make it fit the shape. The whole 1st floor is just wasted space, they had some folding tables and chairs setup. I was hoping that would have been astronomy exhibits. I understand now why there was a three-month 'transition period" and why they demolished the old one so fast. They didn't want people to compare the two structures and realize it wasn't much of an upgrade aside from the aesthetics of the building. The problem is the empty problem is even worse now.

Well that's all disappointing. When i saw the picture from inside, the first thing I said was, well they ruined the entire point of why the seating was made the way it was and turned it into a smaller seating space...bummer. Ripping out those seats effectively ruined the immersive experience ability and turned it into a tilted dome with no good reason for being that way.

It sounds like "world class" it is not. Other than the thing maybe not smelling like the 1960s anymore. 8M for that huh? Someone got ripped off.