The Hong Kong Space Museum's Space Theatre will undergo a major facelift that costs HK$34 million between Nov 17 and June 30 next year. It is the first large-scale renovation since the museum's opening 28 years ago.

When it re-opens in July next year, it will operate with a new, state-of-the-art digital planetarium projector to show three-dimensional full dome animations or movies of the highest resolution and enable the audience to see the starry sky of their own choice of time and place in the universe.

Chan Ki-hung, curator of the Hong Kong Science Museum who made the announcement yesterday, said the main purpose of the renovation is to replace the existing optical mechanical system projector, which has been used since 1980, with a new digital planetarium projector system. With a resolution in excess of 48 million pixels, the new system boasts the highest resolution in the world, he explained.

Members of the audience can experience flying into space to visit the stars or other celestial objects rendered in a 3D model.

"For the time being, the shows are very static," Chan said. "With the new system, the shows will become more dynamic and visually attractive."

Also, the newly designed display unit on the armrest of the new seats will allow viewers to select the language among Cantonese, Puotonghua, English and Japanese.

Chan suggested members of the public take the last chance to look at the Space Theatre before the renovation, but added they have no plan to increase the ticket prices as a result of the renovation.

Meanwhile, he announced three other major projects in the coming years:

The exhibition halls will be fully renovated in 2011 with the existing exhibits being replaced with new exhibits installed in a virtual reality environment.

An Observatory, which houses a 60-cm Cassegrain telescope, the largest professional telescope in Hong Kong, will be opened to the public next month.

The Astropark, which features an observation area for amateurs and naked-eye observation area among other things, is under construction.

(HK Edition 10/29/2008 page1)