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  • Beijing Planetarium
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  • Beijing Planetarium is a state-level museum of natural science. The planetarium aims to popularize and propagandize astronomical knowledge to the public by means of simulated performance of artificial space, space theatre performance, science popularization performance, astrological knowledge exhibition, astrological science popularization publications and website of the planetarium. Meanwhile, science popularization activities like astronomic lectures, astronomical trainings, astronomical Olympic competitions and astronomical summer camps or winter camps are often organized here. The planetarium is also a base to carry out science popularization activities to the youth. Since 1935, the planetarium has been entitled as a science popularization base on various governmental levels, educational base for science and peace education, education base for patriotic education etc, and it has been honored as advanced institution on state level and municipal lever many times.

       The planetarium is divided into the old planetarium and the new planetarium.

       The old planetarium was first built in 1955 and opened to the public in 1957, with a building area of about 7000 square meters. Its main facilities are: celestial hall, exhibition hall, lecture hall and public observatory. The public observatory contains a 130mm-diameter telescope which is mainly used for astronomic observation by the audience and the youth as well as teaching practice activities.

       The new planetarium was built on the original base of the planetarium in the end of 2001. With a building area of 2000 square meters, it was opened to the public in December of 2004. The main facilities are: digital universe theatre, 3D science popularization theatre, 4D science popularization theatre, astronomic exhibition hall, sun observation station, public observatory and astronomic classroom etc.

       The digital universe theatre has 200 seats and has brought in advanced digital projection facilities from abroad. It consists of large-sized picture station and ADLIP laser projection facilities and can vividly show the splendid starry scenery and people’s exploration of the universe. The 3D and 4D science popularization theatres have a seating capacity of 48 and 196 respectively. With their special audio and visual mixture effect, they can produce feelings of strong presence and shock to the audience. The sun observation station, with an exhibition area of 300 square meters, mainly shows the sun and the solar system. The exhibition includes 1.8-meter-long projection picture of the white light of the sun, the 174-mm-long hand-drawn full-disk solar projection picture of the white light of sunspot, the colorful projection picture of sun spectrum, white light of the sun, CCD TV picture of full-disk solar chromospheres and parts of its moving areas etc.

      The second-phase exhibition of the new planetarium, with the topic “Happy discovery of the universe secrets”, opened to the public on July 6th 20006. The exhibition was divided into 15 exhibition areas with extensive contents. Inside the public observatory, there was a 40mm-diameter telescope which was used to satisfy the needs of the audience for astronomic observation and teaching practice activities.

  • [next]:Beijing Museum of Natural History