The "R" word — Big News from Loch Ness Productions

"All things must pass." — George Harrison

The big news:

Effective 30 June 2025, we're closing down the customer-facing side of Loch Ness Productions. After 48 years in the dome trade, Mark and Carolyn Collins Petersen have decided it's time to retire. We're both in our 70s now, and looking forward to some relaxation in the remaining years we have ahead of us.

So how does this affect you? What about FULLDOME OnDemand?

Loch Ness Productions will be turning over the operation of FULLDOME OnDemand to the good folks at ePlanetarium. They have been with us since nearly the beginning, and already have the second-largest number of shows here on the site (from the Houston Museum of Natural Science). They regularly recommend FULLDOME OnDemand to their Discovery Dome customers, for both the fisheye and spherical mirror systems they sell. With Web programmers and office staff on hand, they are the natural choice for keeping FULLDOME OnDemand running.

Since we began FULLDOME OnDemand in 2015, we have streamed thousands of shows to hundreds of domes around the world. And we've provided our 30+ producer partners more than $120,000 (and counting) from show rental fees, creating a new income stream that didn't exist before we started it. Yay!

Back to the future:

After 1 July, you may see a different lineup of available shows here. Producers originally arranged with Loch Ness Productions to distribute their shows via streaming rentals. They now need to arrange for their shows' distribution through ePlanetarium instead. That process will be ongoing.

Fortunately for you, all Loch Ness Productions shows will continue to be available. More Yay!

Otherwise, you shouldn't see much of a difference in the operation of FULLDOME OnDemand. We hope you'll continue to use it as usual! Just keep in mind that "it's all new" to the new management team too, so we thank you in advance for your understanding if there are issues that arise after the turnover.

We thank you for your years of supporting our endeavors, and wish you — and ePlanetarium — prosperity for the future. We hope you'll do the same for us!

23 Apr 2025

We've made a perhaps long-overdue edit to the soundtrack of The Cowboy Astronomer.

We've removed the words about "the SpaceLab that goes up on the shuttle" -- since we haven't had either of those for 12+ years.

And we've removed the lines about people maybe had "heard the Hubble Space Telescope was broken". Back in 1993 when we produced the show, that was indeed the public's perception, before the first Servicing Mission installed COSTAR to fix the spherical aberration of the primary mirror. But now, 30+ years later, most people know how wonderfully Hubble has performed; nobody thinks it's "broken" any more.

People continue to rent The Cowboy Astronomer on FULLDOME OnDemand. Hopefully, it will continue its popularity for years to come.

30 March 2025

Now available with Polish and Ukrainian soundtracks:

Magic Globe

By customer request!

2024

Here's last year's news, if you haven't been here for a while and want to catch up.

Mark C. Petersen, webmaster