Cape Town’s Iziko planetarium has reopened its doors to the public following a R30m (US$2.3m, €2.1m, £1.8m) digital upgrade.

The Iziko Planetarium, part of the Iziko Africa'>South African Museum, has had a much-needed upgrade to the 31-year-old facility, with its new digital fulldome 8K theatre allowing for multimedia image production and data visualisation “on a scale not previously seen in Africa”.

“This space is no longer a planetarium as you know it,” said Iziko CEO Rooksana Omar. “It is in fact a digital dome.

“As part of the upgraded Iziko South African Museum, the new Iziko Planetarium and Digital Dome will feature as one of the African continent’s foremost centres of excellence for indigenous knowledge generation. This type of partnership, between museums, academia and government illustrates the value and impact of collaboration in creating synergies between generating knowledge and providing platforms of expression and innovation.”

South Africa’s Iziko Museums are an agency of the government’s Department of Arts and Culture, which has funded the project along with the University of the Western Cape, the National Research Foundation, the National Lotteries Commission, the University of Cape Town and Cape Peninsula University.

The planetarium is one of only six fully-fledged planetariums on the African continent, which in addition to acting as a visitor attraction, will also serve as a research facility and will be used to bridge the divide between the sciences and the arts.