After nearly three months of renovation, the Burke Baker Planetarium reopens Friday in time for Spring Break.

When the newly renovated Burke Baker Planetarium opens Friday, the Houston Museum of Natural Science will have gone where no other museum has gone before.

"We wanted to be the first of something and we thought being the highest resolution planetarium in the world was awfully cool," says Carolyn Sumners, Phd, the museum's vice president for Astronomy and Physical Sciences.

Sumners played a key role in the $2.5 million project. She adds that the American Museum of Natural History in New York wanted first dibs on the system, but their timing was off.

Some of the highlights include 10 projectors that deliver more than 50 million pixels onto the new dome. The contrast ratio of the display – which means the ratio between the brightest and darkest colors – is huge.

"It looks so black in there," Sumners says. "The star field looks like West Texas on a great, great night."

Board member Stephen Brown, MD, says they've also changed the seating, which used to be on a flat surface.

"Now we have a tilt of approximately 20-plus degrees to the seating, as well as to the dome," Brown says. "Which enables the viewers to really feel like they're immersed in the dome experience."

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