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63-607: The facility is named for aviation pioneer Reuben H. Fleet , who founded the U.S. Air Mail service. Fleet's San Diego-based company, Consolidated Aircraft , built several of the famous aircraft of World War II , including the B-24 Liberator and PBY Catalina . Fleet and his family made the initial gift which established the Science Center. Throughout the 1960s, the San Diego Hall of Science (later known as

126-612: A calligraphic display, a form of vector graphics , rather than raster graphics . The heart of the Digistar projector is a large cathode-ray tube (CRT). A phosphor plate is mounted atop the tube, and light is then dispersed by a large lens with a 160 degree field of view to cover the planetarium dome. The original lens bore the inscription: "August 1979 mfg. by Lincoln Optical Corp., L.A., CA for Evans and Sutherland Computer Corp., SLC, UT, Digital planetarium CRT projection lens, 43mm, f2.8, 160 degree field of view". The coordinates of

189-403: A bright, phosphorescent green, though many (including both visitors and planetarians) report they cannot distinguish between this green and white. Additionally, unlike a raster display, the calligraphic display is not discretized into pixels, so the displayed stars were a more realistic single spot of light, without the blocky or ropy artifacts that are hard to avoid with raster graphics. Due to

252-711: A captain of a National Guard company, was ordered with his men to quell a civil disturbance organized by the Industrial Workers of the World , a militant labor organization. Later, from April through May Fleet and three other officers were assigned to San Diego, California , to keep track of the agitators who had moved south from Washington and Oregon, heading to Mexico . So impressed was Fleet with San Diego and its climate that he told himself that he would arrange to have his business in San Diego if he could. The promise

315-471: A fall. He was buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery , Point Loma, San Diego , California. Digistar Digistar is the first computer graphics -based planetarium projection and content system . It was designed by Evans & Sutherland and released in 1983. The technology originally focused on accurate and high quality display of stars, including for the first time showing stars from points of view other than Earth's surface, travelling through

378-425: A highly distorted image on the film. When projected on the dome through another fisheye lens, the distortion would be reversed, and the original panoramic view would be recreated. The audience would have a view that was like being at the original scene, occupying nearly the entire field of vision. (IMAX has since renamed this system "IMAX Dome", but some dome theaters retain the old name.) The theater opened in 1973 as

441-423: A large-format film projection system to show movies on the dome's interior. The San Diego Hall of Science approached IMAX to adapt their large-screen format, but the existing IMAX system was not designed for filling a hemispherical screen. The system adopted was a modification of IMAX's 65mm format and was named OMNIMAX . The cameras would use a fisheye lens , taking in nearly a 180 degree field of view but with

504-399: A new type of star projector that would not obstruct the view for part of the audience or interfere with the movie projection system. Spitz created a servo-controlled "starball" that became the centerpiece of the system, dubbed a "Space Transit Simulator" (STS). The spherical star projector and a number of independent planet projectors maintained a low profile while projecting a realistic sky for

567-704: A parcel of land in Montesano and donated it to the city for use as a park named in honor of their parents. The city subsequently renamed Second Street to Fleet Street in their honor. Leaving Consolidated, Fleet divided his time between his landmark home in Point Loma, California , the "Spanish Castle," and his residence in Palm Springs, California . During this time Fleet served on the California State Highway Commission. He

630-425: A raster display, which has to touch every point on the phosphor plate before repeating. Likewise, the calligraphic technology allowed Digistar to have a darker black-level than full-dome projectors, since the portions of the phosphor plate representing dark sky were never hit by the electron beam. As it is only one tube, with no pixelated color filter screen, the Digistar projector is monochromatic. The Digistar projects

693-617: A real estate developer, creator of the upscale Fleetridge neighborhood in San Diego. Fleet and Elizabeth were divorced in 1920. In 1931 he married Dorothy Mitchell, and they had three children, Preston "Sandy" Fleet , Dorothy Fleet, and Nancy Fleet. Preston Fleet went on to found the Fotomat Corporation . Fleet and Dorothy were divorced in 1944. He married Eva May VanDenburgh in 1947. Fleet died in San Diego, California , on October 29, 1975, at age 88 from injuries related to

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756-432: A star would be painted. Once all coordinates in the display list had been processed, the display would repeat from the top of the display list. Thus, the shorter the display list the more frequently the electron beam would refresh the charge on a given point on the phosphor plate, making the projection of the points brighter. In this way, the stars projected by Digistar were substantially brighter than could be achieved using

819-693: Is normally held the first Wednesday of every month. Called "The Sky Tonight" and hosted by the Fleet's astronomer-in-residence, it focuses on the current appearance of the sky or on current topics in astronomy. It is followed by free outdoor telescope viewing courtesy of the San Diego Astronomy Association. Reuben H. Fleet Reuben Hollis Fleet (March 6, 1887 – October 29, 1975) was an American aviation pioneer , industrialist and army officer. Fleet founded and led several corporations, including Consolidated Aircraft . Fleet

882-621: The Consolidated PBY Catalina . Exploiting Fleet's experience in Army flight training, Consolidated produced a popular military training aircraft, the PT-11 (Consolidated Model 21) primary/advanced trainer . Leading Consolidated, Fleet founded or acquired a number of subsidiaries, including Fleet Aircraft to market civilian designs, Tonawanda Products Corporation to supply components, and Hall-Aluminum Aircraft Corporation. Among

945-538: The Exploratorium in San Francisco, all exhibits in the science center were required to have something for visitors to manipulate or otherwise participate in. The combination of a planetarium, IMAX Dome theater and interactive science exhibits is now a common thread with most major science museums. By the late 1990s the science center had become small and outdated compared to newer science museums. In 1998

1008-699: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame , and his portrait now hangs along with the other inductees' in the Hall of Fame's gallery within the San Diego Air and Space Museum. In 1967, Fleet's son, Sandy, founded the Fotomat Corporation . In the early 1970s, Fleet largely funded construction of The Bishop Center for Performing Arts at Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen, Washington, in honor of E. K. "Ned" and Lillian Fleet Bishop. Lillian

1071-598: The Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center showing two features, Voyage to the Outer Planets ( a combined planetarium show and OMNIMAX film produced by Graphic Films) and the OMNIMAX film Garden Isle (by Roger Tilton Films) on a double bill. In addition to setting a new standard for planetariums, the science center was a pioneer in modern science museums. Following the example set four years earlier by

1134-583: The de Bothezat helicopter . Fleet performed some of the flight testing himself. Fleet was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his service at McCook Field. With post-war budgets slashed and commissioned officers being reduced one rank Fleet felt he'd gone as far as he could in military aviation. On 30 November 1922, Thanksgiving Day, Fleet, his superior officer and the chief of the Power Plant Section announced to

1197-547: The Aerial Mail Service being jointly operated by the Department of War and U.S. Post Office Department . Fleet was appointed Officer-in-Charge of the Aerial Mail Service in addition to his duties as executive officer for Flying Training. Fleet successfully petitioned President Wilson personally to suspend the expansion of the air mail service to Boston until better equipment and facilities were created. Fleet

1260-574: The Brick, The World's Largest Display of LEGO Art Made Out of Millions of LEGO Bricks", "Taping Shape, Explore an Unexpected Indoor Landscape", and "Science Fiction, Science Future" . The Heikoff Dome Theater usually features three IMAX films at one time; current films shown are Dream Big: Engineering Our World , A Beautiful Planet , and Island of Lemurs: Madagascar . There are also occasional one-time digital shows including both science-oriented productions and music-and-light shows. The planetarium show

1323-480: The E&;S Picture System 2. Later versions of Digistar 1 used a DEC MicroVAX 2, driving a custom version of a PS/300. The original Digistar and Digistar 2 had a physical control panel that was used for running the star shows. This control panel was approximately 3' x 4' and contained a keyboard, a 6 DOF joystick, and a large array of back-lit buttons. One button that was used for moving the viewpoint forward in space

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1386-625: The Fleet Science Center. The STS was used for many years but was replaced by an Evans and Sutherland Digistar II in 2001. The facility has been cited as a leading example of energy efficiency and sustainability. In 2012 the theater was renamed the Eugene Heikoff and Marilyn Jacobs Heikoff Dome Theater, after receiving a large grant from the Irwin Jacobs family for a major renovation. The planetarium projection system

1449-480: The LEA and the true D2. Digistar was the brainchild of Stephen McAllister and Brent Watson, both of whom were long-time amateur astronomers and computer graphics engineers. In 1977, E&S had been consulting with Johnson Space Center regarding training simulators for astronauts. McAllister had been writing proof-of-concept software for this consultation and in summer 1977 entered the data for 400 bright stars and wrote

1512-499: The Milky Way across the sky. On more complex models, especially three-dimensional ones, brightness and details may be lost in this process, so it is not useful in all situations. The Digistar and Digistar 2 also suffer focus limitations. Because they use a single lens to cover the entire dome, it is difficult to gain perfect focus across the dome. Coupled with this, stars greater than a certain brightness are "multihit" points, meaning

1575-848: The North Star Science Store, Craveology cafe, and the Giant Dome Theater. "Residents' Free Day" for San Diego County residents is the first Tuesday of each month. Other museums and attractions in Balboa Park offer Residents Free Days on different days each month. It has a program for both Visiting Exhibitions and Permanent Exhibitions in the galleries. Permanent exhibits in the Science Center include Design Zone; Illusions; It's Electric; Kid City; Nano; Power Play San Diego; Pulseworks VR Transporter; San Diego's Water; So Watt!; Space Gallery; Studio X; Sun, Earth, Universe. Recent temporary exhibitions include "The Art of

1638-687: The San Diego Space and Science Foundation) was planning a new planetarium for San Diego's Balboa Park, with the possibility of an adjacent science hall. The site on Laurel Street opposite the San Diego Natural History Museum was reserved in 1963. The planetarium incorporated several innovative features. It was to be used for both large-format film presentations and traditional planetarium shows. The 76-foot-diameter (23 m) dome would be tilted 25 degrees. The audience would be placed in tiered rows facing outward into

1701-540: The astronomy presentations. These elements, along with a number of slide projectors and lighting systems, were all controlled by a PDP-15 minicomputer. Unlike conventional planetariums, which are limited to showing the night sky as it appears from various points on the surface of the Earth at various dates, the STS could show the sky as it would appear from anywhere within about 100 astronomical units of Earth (about three times

1764-652: The companies acquired by Fleet during time was the Thomas-Morse Aircraft which was failing yet had outstanding contracts to deliver. Fleet selected San Diego, California to relocate Consolidated from Buffalo, New York, where winter weather restricted seaplane operations. The move occurred in 1935. In November, 1941 Fleet elected to sell a majority of his shares in Consolidated to Vultee Aircraft . The resulting company, Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, became known as Convair . He continued on in

1827-678: The day, rejected the Digistar and Digistar 2 because of this, ignoring the other advantages of the system. The CRT in the Digistar and Digistar 2 begins to burn out and lose brightness after roughly 1000 hours of use. This means most planetariums must change out the tube after every year or year-and-a-half. While the original Digistar ran on large VAX computers, Digistar II runs on the much more compact and advanced Sun Microsystems SPARCstation 5 . D2 uses two primary file types, .vl and .sf. .vl files are binary model files, while .sf files are binary show data files. Model files contain vector, line and dot data, as well as parametric changes to data within

1890-563: The family lived in much diminished conditions from the time Reuben was six until he was thirteen. At 15, Fleet attended Culver Military Academy where his uncle, Alexander Fleet, was superintendent. He spent his fourth and final year at the academy as the editor-in-chief of the cadet newspaper, the C.M.A. Vedette. Culver provided the equivalent of an associate degree , and after his graduation Fleet intended to continue his education at Stanford University . Deciding against going to Stanford immediately, in 1907 Fleet returned home, where he took

1953-589: The file. Digistar II show files are programmed in a language related to Pascal . Further, Digistar II can run animation files, .af, with the ASCII format .afa. An animation file consists of several model files, grouped together and loaded as one object. The Digistar II can either select frames individually, or animate the entire file. Digistar II is able to convert Digistar show and model files. Similarly, Digistar 3 can convert Digistar II model files, though it cannot, at this time, convert show files. Despite its limits,

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2016-431: The file. Show files contain commands to the system, regarding the manipulation of the observer and models declared within the file. Several show files are often strung together underneath each other in show production. Both .vl and .sf have ASCII equivalents for editing--.vla and .sfa respectively. These are converted to their binary equivalents by a utility built into the Digistar system, which also checks for errors within

2079-471: The four sides at the tip of the pyramid would recede into the housing, exposing the lens and appearing as a cut-off pyramid. As Digistar II was being developed, many planetaria were sold Digistar LEA projectors. The LEA, called Digistar 1.5 by many users, was effectively a prototype of the D2 projector, compatible with Digistar and upgradable to Digistar II. There are no significant differences in performance between

2142-480: The limitation of traditional star ball technology that only allowed display of star fields from the point of view of Earth's surface. By using computer graphics the stars could be displayed from viewpoints in space, including simulating the appearance of space flight. Likewise, planets and moons within the Solar System could be displayed accurately for any time in history, from any point of view. The system used

2205-542: The location of real stars from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue , as well as random stars. A laboratory prototype of Digistar was used to generate the star fields and tactical displays in the 1982 science fiction film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . Filming was done directly from the Digistar display in the lab. ILM projected the effort would take two weeks, but in fact it took from late November 1981 until mid-February 1982. The last shot recorded

2268-610: The lower left quadrant of the sheet. Fleet's next assignment was as the Army Air Service's chief aviation contracting officer, part of the Engineering Division, based at McCook Field . There he played key roles in the development of the turbocharger for aero applications and the testing of a number of other aviation innovations, including the Loening PW-2 A, the first American pursuit monoplane, and

2331-407: The original Digistar and Digistar 2 are limited to only projecting dots and lines—meaning only wireframe models can be projected. To compensate for this, the projector is capable of defocusing specific models, blurring lines and dots together. An example of this is in the Digistar 2's built-in Milky Way model. The model is a circle of parallel lines that, when defocused, appear as the continuous band of

2394-509: The original Digistar was well received by many planetarians, and has been distributed worldwide. Though it lacked the pin-point stars of opto-mechanical projectors, and the full-dome rendering abilities of the later Digistar 3, many planetarians consider it a good balance between the two, especially considering the novel capabilities of seeing heavenly bodies from any point in space and time. The Digistar line has an installed base of over 550 planetaria as of 2019. Terence Murtagh, past president of

2457-461: The press that they were resigning. Upon resigning his commission Fleet accepted a position with Gallaudet Aircraft Company. Fleet arranged the merger between Gallaudet Aircraft Company and Dayton-Wright Company to create his own company, Consolidated Aircraft Company, in 1923. He hired Isaac Machlin Laddon , who had been in charge of design of heavy aircraft at McCook Field. One of his first goals

2520-410: The projector draws two dots at the given position to accommodate the brightness of the star. Errors in the projector can lead the second dot to be slightly out-of-place with the first one. These two issues together, along with other issues that can occur within the projector's focus system, give the stars a blobby look. Some planetarians, used to the pinpoint opto-mechanical projector stars ubiquitous in

2583-427: The radius of Pluto's orbit). A joystick even allowed the operator to "fly" the theater through space, showing the resulting apparent movement of planets through the sky, though in practice the planetarium presentations were always pre-programmed. The Fleet is also home to the world's first IMAX Dome Theater, presenting the biggest films on the planet. In addition to planetarium shows, the museum's founders wanted to use

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2646-685: The role of adviser and consultant for five more years. He also became a private consultant for Franklin D. Roosevelt . Consolidated went on to become a key supplier of heavy bombers with the widely produced B-24 Liberator playing a key role in the Allied strategic bombing campaigns, and the Convair B-36 —the world's largest piston-engined bomber—filling a crucial gap in the Cold War years until jet -powered bombers became widely available. In August 1946, Fleet and his sister, Lillian, bought

2709-566: The same time, in-house production of various scientific topics began using video software designed for the dome screen. In 2021, the Fleet Science Center received a $ 1,200 grant from Pfizer to support programming on COVID-19 vaccines . All of the Fleet Science Center's exhibits, galleries, and a Heikoff Dome Theater show are included in a daily admission ticket. Features include more than 100 interactive science exhibits in 8 galleries, traveling exhibitions, Kid City (especially for kids five and under), Studio X (interactive create and invent place),

2772-469: The science center was expanded (into space freed by moving the offices and construction shops to another site) and modernized to include rides such as the Virtual Zone, a motion-simulator offering virtual rides with a scientific bent. The scientific and interactive exhibits then dwarfed the planetarium/theater, so the name was changed to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and re-branded in late 2016 as

2835-428: The software to display them. Steve and Brent both originally saw the system's purpose as celestial navigation training. Brent, who had until recently worked at Hansen planetarium , asked his planetarium coworkers what they thought of a potential digital planetarium system, and then Steve and Brent both targeted the system toward planetaria. The primary goal of the planetarium system was to use computer graphics to overcome

2898-456: The stars and wire-frame models to be displayed by the projector were stored in computer RAM in a display list. The display would read each set of coordinates in turn and drive the CRT's electron beam directly to those coordinates. If the electron beam was enabled while being moved a line would be painted on the phosphor plate. Otherwise, the electron beam would be enabled once at its destination and

2961-402: The stars, and accurately showing celestial bodies from different times in the past and future. Beginning with the Digistar 3 the system now projects full-dome video . Unlike modern full-dome systems, which use LCD , DLP , SXRD , or laser projection technology, the Digistar projection system was designed for projecting bright pinpoints of light representing stars. This was accomplished using

3024-662: The state teachers examination and began teaching all grades from first through eighth. After a number of months, Fleet set himself up as a realtor and resigned from teaching. It was also during this time that Fleet joined the Washington National Guard , as captain. In 1908, with a loan from Montesano State Bank for $ 1500, Fleet began investing in local real estate, which would eventually culminate in Fleet owning large tracts of timberland which he would subdivide and parcel out, often for railroad right-of-way or logging, for substantial profit. In March 1911, Fleet,

3087-411: The team repeatedly used Salt Lake City 's Hansen planetarium to beta test the system at the planetarium at night. The Digistar team performed one week of shows at the planetarium as a fund raiser to benefit the planetarium. The company also later gave the planetarium an improved prototype Digistar to replace "Jake", the planetarium's aging Spitz planetarium projector. The first customer installation

3150-458: The tilted dome to give the feeling of being suspended in space and looking forward, rather than looking upward into an overhead dome. The founders also wanted to eliminate the large dumbbell -shaped star projector used in traditional planetariums, which juts from the center of the room and blocks part of the view, and would interfere with the movies being projected onto the dome. The San Diego Hall of Science approached Spitz Laboratories to create

3213-446: The use of vector graphics, as opposed to raster imaging, the Digistar does not have the resolution issues that many full-dome systems have. Thanks to this, and the brightness of the CRT, only one projector is needed to project on the entire dome, whereas most full-dome systems require up to six raster projectors, depending on dome size. The projector in the original Digistar was housed in a square pyramid-shaped sheathing. When powered on,

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3276-619: Was Fleet's sister, and "Ned" Bishop, a logging tycoon in western Washington state, was an early investor in Consolidated Aircraft. The Bishops left their fortune to a foundation that funds operation of the Bishop Center. The Reuben H. Fleet Space Theatre, now the Fleet Science Center , was established in San Diego in 1973 after an initial gift by his son Preston Fleet and the rest of the Fleet family. It

3339-612: Was also active in the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences (IAS), the professional society for aeronautical engineers and researchers in related fields. IAS was founded in 1932 and was the predecessor of today's AIAA. In 1961 Fleet founded the San Diego Aerospace Museum to commemorate President Kennedy's commitment to land a man on the moon within this decade. In 1965 Fleet was invested in

3402-639: Was born on March 6, 1887, to Lillian Waite and David Fleet in Montesano, Washington . The Fleets were a prosperous family; David Fleet was city engineer and county auditor for Montesano, and owned large tracts of land in the Washington Territory . He also served as the city clerk. Reuben grew up in Grays Harbor , Washington . The Panic of 1893 wiped out the land holdings of the Fleets and

3465-413: Was improved again, and currently uses two Global Immersion GSX systems, each containing two Sony SRX 420 4K video projectors. The renovation include improving the dome's screen with the world's first NanoSeam Dome screen in an IMAX Theater. This system is used for both live planetarium presentations and digital movies. IMAX Dome movies are still shown using the original film projector and fisheye lens. At

3528-514: Was in charge of the airmail service in 1918 when the famous 24-cent Inverted Jenny postage stamp was printed in error. It became one of the rarest collector stamps of United States postage. In 2013 the United States Postal Service commemorated this issue by printing 2,182,000 Souvenir sheets . Each had six of the stamps (repriced at $ 2) surrounded by period images. Dressed as a World War I -era aviator, Fleet appears in

3591-655: Was kept 24 years later when he relocated the Consolidated plant to San Diego from Buffalo, New York Anticipating the entry of the United States into World War I Fleet closed his office in March 1917 and reported to the training facility of the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps, United States Army , in San Diego. Commissioned in the Army as a major, Fleet graduated Junior Military Aviator No. 74. He

3654-419: Was labeled " Boldly Go ". Later iterations of Digistar replaced the physical control panel with a common graphical user interface . Digistar 3 was the first Digistar system to offer full-dome video in 2002, using six projectors. Digistar 4 was able to cover the dome using only two projectors. Though technologically advanced in its day, and the closest system to true full-dome video at the time of its release,

3717-702: Was the first science museum to combine interactive science exhibits with a planetarium and very large screen theater based on the IMAX film format, setting the pattern that most major science museums have since adopted. In 1975, Reuben was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. Fleet married Elizabeth Girton on April 29, 1908, and they settled in Montesano, Washington. They had two children, Phyllis Fleet and David Girton Fleet; David later became an executive with Consolidated and

3780-608: Was then assigned as acting commanding officer of the 18th Aero Squadron , Training. During the war in Europe Fleet was the executive officer for Flying Training, Signal Corps Aviation Section, stationed in Washington, D.C., with temporary duty in England. His commanding officer was Colonel 'Hap' Arnold . In May 1918 Fleet was tasked with setting up the first scheduled U. S. Air Mail between New York and Washington, D.C.,

3843-465: Was to secure the contract to design a twin-engine night bomber for the Army. Teaming with Sikorsky, they failed to win the competition with their S-37 design. Consolidated then went on to a long line of successful designs and lucrative contracts for seaplanes for the Navy. Starting with their XPY-1 of 1928, the company's string of successes culminated in one of the most numerous and successful seaplanes,

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3906-527: Was to the newly constructed Universe Planetarium at the Science Museum of Virginia in 1983, the largest planetarium dome in the world at the time, for $ 595,000. By September 1986 there were four installed Digistars. Even at this point the long-term success of the product was very much in doubt, but as of 2019 Digistar has an installed base of over 550 planetaria. Digistar was driven by a VAX-11 /780 minicomputer, with custom graphics hardware related to

3969-400: Was what became the first entirely computer generated feature film sequence. It was the opening scene of the film, a rotating forward translation through a star field that lasted 3.5 minutes. It was recorded in one take, at a rate of one frame every 3.5 seconds, taking four hours for the shoot. The Digistar team members are credited in the film. After prototyping in labs at Evans and Sutherland

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