14-Sep-2006:

ESA/Hubble has released the first comprehensive free digital archive with fulldome movies in the world. The movies are being used by planetaria worldwide in their planetarium shows. The format is 3600 pixels x 3600 pixels, lightly compressed single jpeg frames produced with with a 180 degrees fish-eye camera, or a standard 5 camera rig stitched together to a dome master. Some of the movies show Hubble images and some 3D animations. When shown on a big planetarium dome the Hubble images really come to their fullest expression, although some of the Hubble images contain even 10 times more pixels than can be shown even in these super high-res movies.

So far 26 movies have been released, and more will be added as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope makes new discoveries.