Theater manager Richard McColman, left, and chief technician Steve Nichol disassemble the Zeiss Model VI star projector at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at UNC-Chapel Hill on Tuesday.

Installed in 1969, one of its uses was for NASA astronaut training, which lasted until 1975.

But with an increase in repairs and scarcity of replacement parts, the 42-year-old projector was decommissioned in April 2011 when a digital projection system was installed.