February 2023 Challenge: The Planetarium

[Rwhyte]

This was filed away in my brain for perhaps just such a challenge, Behold, the Planetarium!

Well first, some background.The real star here is Etienne-Louis Boullee, who in 1784 imagined, but never built, a grand memorial to Newton.



The vast spherical interior of the monument would serve a dual purpose. At night, it would be illuminated by a great spherical lamp.


And by day, an impression of the night sky would be created by sunlight streaming through perforations in the dome.


And now I, rank amateur, will seek to use this inspiring work in another foray into learning Blender. Below, I used both the plan and cross-section drawings as a guide to place and scale the basic shapes.


Ah yes and the star system part. The sun lamp is set, and next will be adding planets, moons? to round out the planetarium. We'll see where this goes... learning a lot so far.

### Latest WIP ###


A few links:
Digital images from the National Library of France: https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engi...#resultat-id-6

A Cenotaph for Newton: The Poetry of Public Spaces, the Architecture of Shadow, and How Trees Inspired the World’s First Planetarium Design – The Marginalian