trichy the anna science centre in trichy has launched a major renovation work to upgrade the planetarium theatres infrastructure at 3 crore the 23yearold photomechanical planetarium will be replaced by a complete digital planetarium to offer sophisticated edutainment experience for the children the interactive system and seating capacity are to be upgraded toosince 1999 the planetarium was using a japanese technology display unit to project the artificial sky with the technology becoming outdated and importing spares has became difficult the higher education department has purchased a digital display unit from a francebased planetarium service provider the dome theatre was closed to install the stateoftheart technology the technology upgrade will improve the display clarity of celestial objects and enriches the interactive experience the seating capacity will be increased from 80 to 90 people the shows projecting planetary constellations will go on for 2030 minutes per slot we will open the new planetarium theatre by april 2023 coinciding with summer holidays the audio system in the domeshaped theatre will have international standards r ahilan project director of the planetarium told toi the management has procured 40 lakh worth of portable mirror dome planetarium to run the interactive sessions for children during the renovation period students are being shown audiovisual sessions in the hemisphericalshaped balloon uniteven after the permanent theatre is commissioned we will use the portable balloon planetarium to conduct skywatching programmes at schools a separate proposal for a new auditorium was submitted too ahilan added from january the planetarium will resume training classes on sky watching that were suspended after the pandemic struck