Digging the Pit and Taking down the Dome
click on a photo below for a larger image.

Once the old star machine, its wiring, the center pit and auxiliary projectors were removed there was little left in the middle of the room. You can see the original carpet that was hidden by the “pit wall”. The theater was looking pretty bare at this point.
The air conditioning ducts met under the floor, in the center of the room, right where we needed a pit to house the lift for the new star machine.  Concrete had to be removed and this huge hole had to be dug to reroute the air ducts and make room for the lift. It looked like an archeological dig! No ancient artifacts were found.

Here we can see things coming back together. Fresh concrete has been poured for the floor, and the pit for the star projector elevator and the electrical trough can be seen. Also notice the projection dome starting to be removed.

The pit will allow the new star projector to be lowered by more than three feet. This will allow better views of the front of the theater when the stars are not being projected and allow cleaner “all-sky” projections.

The rivets were drilled out and the old dome skin came down in sheets. Wow. It was dusty back there!

Just the frame of the old dome is left here. You can see that it was a geodesic structure. The new projection dome has a totally different style of framing. We won’t be able to make jokes about “the Volleyball” anymore.