Nvidia Quadro in the world’s highest resolution cathedral theater

After two years of construction and $ 14 million in investment, the Adler Planetarium in Chicago is once again opening its doors to curious visitors. The main issue is the upgraded Grainger Sky Theater, which now boasts the title of the world’s highest resolution cathedral theater – 8K x 8K pixels or 64 megapixels over a 21 meter wide dome.

The new system projects a seamless image over 190 degrees with a resolution that is eight times higher than what is commonly used in digital cinemas. Behind the scenes, 42 houses Nvidia Quadro that pumps out 64 megapixels 30 times per second, but the computer cluster is powerful enough to go up to a full 60 FPS during interactive displays.

To create a realistic model of the universe, astronomers used digital photographs from space travel and space-based telescopes. Supercomputers at NASA’s Ames Research Center worked for more than three weeks to calculate the motions of 7,200 objects, resulting in a final 400 TB dataset that is now used to depict supernovae, among other things. To make matters worse, the entire system can be controlled with a standard Ipad.