The journey goes on

A new planetarium is opened at Brasov Zoo

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 26.03.2019, 13:32

Concepts of
geography, meteorology, biology and astronomy will be shared to the general
public in a much friendlier way as of April, thanks to the opening of the
Planetarium of the Brasov Zoo. In fact, 2018 was a year of novelties at the
Brasov Zoo. After creating a small Antarctic in the town, complete with
penguins and seals for which adequate shelters have been built, works also
started for the construction of special buildings to host tamarins, marmosets,
exotic birds and insects.

Plans are also
afoot for the building of meerkat shelters and of a new home for the monkeys in
the zoo. But the most spectacular initiative is the establishment of the
largest planetarium in Romania. The director of the Brasov Zoo, Alin Pinzaru,
tells us more about it.

Alin Pinzaru: One of our largest investments is in the new planetarium theatre. It
is the most up-to-date and the largest in the country, both in terms of the
number of seats, and of the size of the dome on which special shows will be
screened. The platform is around 15 m in surface area, and it can seat 107
people, including 2 persons with disabilities. It is a state-of-the-art
planetarium, built in line with European standards.

But why a
planetarium theatre at the zoo? Alin Pinzaru explains:

Alin Pinzaru: The idea dates years back, when we started to upgrade the zoo, in
2012. We thought a planetarium would complement the general activity of our
zoo, given that we could organize special projects for children, focusing on
animals and plants, and the educational element of our activity could be
greatly extended.

The planetarium
will host film screenings on various topics, from geography to meteorology and
from astronomy to biology. By means of 30-40-minute long screenings, visitors
will be able to travel to the most distant places on Earth, to all the planets
in the galaxy, while video animations will help them better understand various
scientific concepts, the head of the Brasov Zoo also told us.

Alin Pinzaru: We consider procuring several types of videos devoted to children,
particularly the 4-6 year olds. This will be particularly interesting
considering that most planetariums usually address kids over 6 years of age. We
want to be able to provide programmes for younger ones as well, for
kindergarten kids. Obviously, we will also have astronomy classes, which will
be open and interactive, enabling the little ones to find out more about the
outer space, about planets and so on. In addition, various companies which want
to launch products will be able to rent the facility for their events. So the
project has great potential.

With this new facility
in place, visitors will be able to spend an entire day at the Brasov Zoo,
depending on how interested they are in finding out new things, but also in
spending a relaxing day outdoors. And this is because, as Alin Pinzaru promised
us, there are countless surprises waiting for us at every turn. And although he
did not give us too many details, so he would not spoil the surprise, he added
just a few more things, to make sure people are interested enough to visit the
place.

Alin Pinzaru: A lot of people are not very sure what a planetarium is about,
exactly. I can assure you that it is an amazing experience, which redefines
audio-visual sensory perception. Imagine a tilted 360-degree dome, with a
platform replicating the 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth’s axis. It gives a
dramatically immersive feeling of floating in outer space, an unbelievable
experience. The quality of the sound system is also outstanding, we have a
state-of-the-art 7.1 channel system. Being surrounded by images and multimedia
content is definitely a wonderful experience.

And since the beginning
of spring encourages us to spend as much time as possible outdoors, a day at
the Brasov Zoo and Planetarium will definitely be for a memorable experience.