Aspheric Plastic Lens and Planetarium MS-10 Registered as Essential Historical Materials for Science and Technology

The MS-10 was the first planetarium model developed for mass production by the planetarium division of Minolta Camera Co., Ltd. (present-day Konica Minolta Planetarium Co., Ltd.), which can project approximately 5,000 stars up to the sixth magnitude. A total of 58 MS-10 units were produced and the first, oldest extant unit is still working, having been installed in Yamaguchi Prefecture in Japan in 1966.

The MS-10 intensifies the brightness of radiant stars using special micro lenses. In addition, the MS-10 delivers an emotionally moving experience to viewers with its ability to reproduce the twinkling of stars, which was revolutionary for the time, as well as colors. The MS-10 was registered as an Essential Historical Material as a heritage that shows the technical standard and astronomy education in those days.

Konica Minolta remains committed to further enhancing its core optical and nano-fabrication technologies, while combining its image analysis and other core technologies with digital technologies to create new value by "visualizing the invisible."