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Flint Planetarium To Undergo $1.8M Makeover

FLINT, Mich. (AP) - The Longway Planetarium in Flint will undergo its largest renovation since it opened in 1958.

The $1.8 million project slated for next year will include a rebuilt interior planetarium dome, new seats and a new digital projection system, the Flint Journal  reported. The renovation will be largely funded by a $1.5 million grant from the Flint-based Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Construction is set to begin in January and the reopening is expected in May.

The planetarium's new technology, the Digistar V, will replace a roughly 15-year-old Digistar 2 system. The exterior of the dome will be untouched, other than perhaps a new coat of paint, while the interior will be torn out and receive a complete revocation, according to Todd Slisher, executive director of Sloan Longway, which runs the planetarium.

Seats will be reconfigured from a circle arrangement to resemble a more traditional theater setup, with all the seats facing in the same direction. Capacity will be reduced from about 280 to 140.

Although the renovation will make the interior of the dome a little bit smaller, it will still be the largest planetarium dome in Michigan. But the planetarium wasn't reaching its current capacity anyway, and the project will allow it to offer more programs, Slisher said.

"We'll have the ability to add a lot of shows," he said.

The new system will allow for more than just stargazing since it will make the dome more of "a theater that can fly you anywhere you can imagine," Slisher said.

Buddy Stark, a new astronomer at Longway, said the upcoming renovations played a large role in his decision to take the job. The new system will open the planetarium up to endless possibilities, he said.

"If you can get it on a computer screen, I can get it on a 60-foot dome," Stark said.

© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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