So far so good. The images below show the cardboard triangles being assembled into a geodesic dome - and the "hobbit house" below it shows the dome angled at 20 degrees on the wooden support.
The next stage is to calibrate the dome and test the projector/mirror system.
The dome so far has cost around $600 in cardboard, wood, clips, paint, tape, brushes, rollers, hinges and handles and other minor bits of hardware.
I eagerly await the completion of this project. I plan to try get my son's school to try to build this for a 5th grade project. I have several very interested science teachers waiting for the final specs, costs and instructions. I think we can round up projectors and laptops pretty easily.
I am also really interested to see what the kids to regarding tours. This will be a great way to engage kids on creating their own tours and showing them to their peers.
When is the first viewing?
I have high hopes for this project. Share more information after it's done.
I'd like to hear some feedback from the people who first enter it.
Revitol Stretch Mark Prevention
Well it all seems to work. The software has been updated to enable spheric mirror distortion - so the image appears undistorted when projected onto the dome, and the planetarium itself is complete. It works great - though we have found the cheaper mirrors give off unwanted multiple "ghost" images, and first surface mirrors work great but are a bit more expensive. The next step will be working with a few schools that volunteer to build the thing - and recycle their feedback into the construction instructions.
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/docs/worldwidetelescopeplanetarium.html