Barack Obama’s $3 Million ‘Overhead Projector’ Actually Pretty Cool

During the last Presidential debate , John McCain deliver this blood about his opposition with withering scorn :

[ Obama ] vote for about a billion dollars in pork barrel bbl earmark task , including , by the means , $ 3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago , Illinois .

I ’m already tired of hearing these guys talk , but that caught my ear . A $ 3 million projector ? What does that even attend like ? Gearlog did somediggingand found out that the annexation was request by the planetarium to replace an awesome ( but disused ) 40 - yr honest-to-god Zeiss Mark VI maven projector with a newer model ( pictured above).Anyone with a planetarium in town will recall the Mark VI from school field head trip : the 2.5 long ton , 1350 watt giant ( project below ) can see a dynamic trope of grand of champion and configuration onto the ceiling of a massive dome for the viewing pleasure of a reclined audience . Its replacement would have been much more telling , had it been give : the Universarium Model IX , which is a $ 3.5 million astronomical projection social unit capable of accurately representing a Nox sky in full color and motion . The proposition never got anywhere for a variety of cause , but government away , that ’s not exactly your school day ’s transparency projector . you may check off out the specification sheet at Zeiss’sofficial website . Model IX photo from Picassa user Lito [ Gearlog , NYT ]

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