Planetarium with star identifying means
OwnerPhilip Sterninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pin hole type star globe of a planetarium is provided with star identifying means for intermittently interrupting light projected through a pin hole of the star globe to form a star image on a viewing screen, thereby causing a perceptible, identifying blinking of said star image. The star identifying means includes an occluding arm which may be caused to swing back and forth into and out of interference with reference to the projected light; such swinging being caused by electrical, radio frequency means, controlled by step operating switching means.
Claims9
In a planetarium (according to claim 1,) having a light emitting star globe with a light source therein and having plural pin holes therein through which light from said source is projected, and a screen upon which such projected light forms separate star images approximately in relationships as stars represented by said images appear visible in the firmament;
- light occluding means for providing intermittent occlusion of a beam of said light which is projected to form a star image, to cause blinking of said star image, and control means for initiating and terminating said intermittent occlusion;
- said light occluding means comprising an interrupter unit fixed to a generally spherical wall defining said star globe;
- said unit including an occluding arm, and an actuator, responsive to said control means, for causing reciprocation of said arm back and forth intermittently into and from the path of light projected from said light source.
In a planetarium having a light emitting star globe with a light source therein and plural pin holes therein through which light from said source is projected, and a screen upon which the light projected through said pin holes forms separate star images on said screen approximately in their apparent visual relationships as the stars appear in the firmament;
- plural light occluding means separately fixed upon said star globe adjacent to related pin holes from which projected light engenders images, on said screen, of selected stars to be mentioned in a lecture, each of said occluding means including an occluding arm and radio frequency reception means adapted to swing said arm into and from light occluding relationship to light issuing from its related pin hole;
- a power supply providing relatively low voltage direct current;
- plural radio transmitters connected in parallel to said power supply and each adapted to transmit radio frequency energy intermittently at relatively low intervals of the order of two to five times per second;
- a multi-contact switching device controlling separate circuits through said plural transmitters;
- operating means for operating said switching device to selectively close said circuits to selectively activate said transmitters;
- a magnetic tape having a first track, controlling reproduction of a lecture, and a second track, having programming variations therein coordinated with said lecture, and electrically coacting with and controlling operation of said operating means to control the selective activation of one of said transmitters;
- said reception means of each occluding means being paired, by similar tuning, with a different one of said transmitters, whereby selective activation of each transmitter activates the occluding means paired with the activated transmitter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.