[jsolson]

I was surprised to see a mention of the Carnegie Science Center's Omnimax and the year 1978 -- my recollection was that this theater didn't open until I was both alive and cognizant enough of the world around me to remember it.

That seems consistent with this announcement from 2017 that the theater was going to close (citing a quarter century): https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/rangos-omnimax-theater-to...

I couldn't find any press covering it from 1978, although this directory of IMAX/Omnimax theaters from 1992 matches my recollection of it opening in ~1991.

[jcrawfordor]

I think you're right, I mixed up some different locations. Here's the cool thing: while I was checking that against newspaper archives I happened to run across an older version of an illustration I saw used in the '90s, but the older version has a more complete caption! It confirms that the Science Museum of Minnesota installation was at least planned to have a Spitz STS like the Fleet. I'll see if I can tell if it was ever installed or not. I've been unsure of whether or not the Fleet was the only example of a combined Omnimax/planetarium.

The same illustration appeared with announcements of some other Omnimax theaters, but I suspect it had just been copied from the Minnesota design without paying much attention. The captions never mention the STS.

However, the side control booth located about halfway up the house, which is present in all of the Omnimax theaters where I've been able to check, is labeled as the "Planetarium console." This could explain the curiosity of the '90s Omnimax theaters having two different control booths. It seems odd to keep that feature without the planetarium projector.