Monsoon is certainly not the season for stargazers in the city but a digital planetarium - to be readied around June-July this year - would inspire them to chase their passion amid the overcast conditions.

Officials at Sri Krishna Science Centre are waiting with bated breath for a digital projector, which would come from Germany, as the civil, electrical and fabrication works for the facility are completed.

The planetarium block has been constructed utilising funds to the tune of Rs 3.26 crore on the north-eastern side of the science centre on the site of the recently demolished Sri Krishna Gyan Mandir.

"Most of the groundwork for holding the shows at the newly developed digital planetarium is almost over. The digital projector to be used for holding the shows is being imported from Germany. We would start the shows soon after the projector is delivered to us and the corresponding trial runs are held successfully," said Swaroop Mandal, curator, Sri Krishna Science Centre.

The planetarium block has three floors (G+2), where the first floor is being used for developing an innovation hub and the digital planetarium has been developed on the second floor. "The planetarium is fully air-conditioned and it has a seating capacity for 50 people. People would sit on reclining chairs and the movies would be projected on the dome-shaped roof. Apart from the usual planetarium shows, the facility would act as an astronomy centre, where various aspects of astronomy would be explained to the visitors," said Mandal.

Explaining the difference in technologies between Indira Gandhi Science Complex, commonly referred as Patna planetarium, and the upcoming planetarium adjacent to Biscomaun Bhavan, a senior official of Sri Krishna Science Centre said: "Patna planetarium uses opto-mechanical equipment - a conventional type of instrument based on usage of optical lenses and lights. However, this technology has gradually become obsolete and its spare parts are hardly available. However, the proposed digital planetarium at this science centre is a far advanced technology in which picture quality is far better and there is minimal distortion in the images."

The official added: "Our parent body, National Council of Science Museums under the Union ministry of culture, indigenously developed this low-cost solution for digital planetarium. Such facilities have already been set up in Siliguri in Bengal, Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, Gulbarga in Karnataka and Dharampur in Gujarat."

Deliberating on the concept of the upcoming innovation hub on the first-floor of the planetarium, curator Mandal said: "Innovation hubs provide various resources to children, including multimedia kiosks, to explore major inventions, e-journals, books and portals, technology labs for robotics to provides an opportunity for developing their ideas on science and technology."

Senior officials said a children gallery is also proposed to be developed in the later stages at the ground floor of the planetarium block, which would mainly cater to infants.