page_title: Fleet Science Center
section_title: First IMAX Dome theater
hierarchical_section_title: Fleet Science Center / History / Planetarium / First IMAX Dome theater
caption_attribution_description: English: Cora Miller, a local San Diegan, explores The Kid Zone at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in San Diego, March 14. The Kid Zone is one of six hands-on exhibits at the center where visitors can interact with every educational display.
context_page_description: The Fleet Science Center is a science museum and planetarium in Balboa Park, located in San Diego, California. It is at the east end of the El Prado Drive walkway, next to the Bea Evenson Fountain and plaza in central Balboa Park.
  Established in 1973, it was the first science museum to combine interactive science exhibits with a planetarium and an IMAX Dome theater, setting the standard that most major science museums follow today.
context_section_description: The Fleet is also home to the world’s first IMAX Dome Theater, presenting the biggest films on the planet. In addition to planetarium shows, the museum's founders wanted to use a large-format film projection system to show movies on the dome's interior. 
  The San Diego Hall of Science approached IMAX to adapt their large-screen format, but the existing IMAX system was not designed for filling a hemispherical screen.
  The system adopted was a modification of IMAX's 65mm format and was named OMNIMAX. The cameras would use a fisheye lens, taking in nearly a 180 degree field of view but with a highly distorted image on the film. When projected on the dome through another fisheye lens, the distortion would be reversed, and the original panoramic view would be recreated. The audience would have a view that was like being at the original scene, occupying nearly the entire field of vision. (IMAX has since renamed this system "IMAX Dome", but some dome theaters retain the old name.)
  The theater opened in 1973 as the "Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center" showing two features, Voyage to the Outer Planets ( a combined planetarium show and OMNIMAX film produced by Graphic Films) and the OMNIMAX film Garden Isle (by Roger Tilton Films) on a double bill.
caption: The Kid Zone hands-on exhibits at the museum.
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