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Visiting the Planetarium

Nov 20 2015.

A Visit to the Planetarium

Places of entertainment are found quite in abundance today. We could think of many hangout spots which have been established solely for entertainment purposes. But today, there are only a few places which could actually provide entertainment as well as some interesting information for schoolchildren to gather for educational purposes. Out of them, one establishment which still stands tall is the Planetarium. While taking a tour around the planetarium we learned that many schoolchildren and adults show an interest in paying a visit to the Planetarium at least once in their lifetime. Speaking to us, Mr. Anuradha Fernando, Science and Technical Officer at the Planetarium explained the shows which are aired, the equipment used and the demand they have today.

Shows

According to Mr. Fernando, the Planetarium airs trilingual shows targeted at different audiences. “We have schoolchildren coming in at different grades, basically from Grade 6 to A/Ls and then we have shows for adults as well. The indoor arena has a seating capacity for 500 people and once a show starts we do not take anybody in because the light will obstruct the scenes which are being showed.”

“Some of our shows include the Birth of the Solar System which takes visitors through the phases of its creation, from condensation of the initial cloud of gas and cosmic dust, to its final formation as we know it today. Other shows include, Hubble Vision 2 which shows the findings made by the Hubble Space Telescope, Dawn of the Space Age which takes the audience on an exciting and a thrilling space travel and Natural Selection where the audience can join the young Charles Darwin on an adventurous voyage with the HMS Beagle.”

Cool stuff!

The Daily Mirror Life had the opportunity to witness a ‘Full Dome’ show which was in fact a thrilling experience. It is absolutely amazing to see planets, the Milky Way, galaxies and other space objects as closer to your eyes as possible and in one instance, we actually felt as if we were going on a journey to different planets. In addition to the visual images, these shows are entirely developed for educational purposes.

Mobile Planetarium

“We also have a mobile planetarium for schoolchildren who do not have an opportunity to come to Colombo at see the show at the Planetarium. This is like a balloon which we setup when visiting schools so that schoolchildren can get a similar experience to what they would get here. During our visits to these remote schools we also conduct night observation camps where we use telescopes to see stars and have many other activities,” Mr. Anuradha added.

Technology

There is what is called the Universal projector which was installed back in 1965 but is running quite efficiently. The projector moves in slow motion at times depicting the position of the Sun. In addition to that we were also able to witness how it is like during a total Lunar eclipse and even a rain of comets. In addition to these projectors, there are telescopes designed for different purposes. They have different focusing abilities in order to view different objects in space. The night sky is created by the universal projector or the Digital Power dome projector system.

Tickets and bookings

It is always advisable to make a booking before you pay a visit to the Planetarium because you will not actually believe how many people among us are actually interested in what is happening in space. According to Mr. Anuradha Fernando, sometimes there are groups from the forces coming in to watch the shows as well. If somebody comes in all of a sudden they might have to face a lot of inconveniences since we air shows in different languages and to different age groups. Therefore if a Tamil adult comes in all of a sudden, he cannot watch a Sinhala show targeted at A/L students. So this is why we advise visitors to book and come for a show.