An Englishman In America

My nephew has been staying with us the last few days so we have been checking out some of the local attractions for kids around the Reno, Nevada area. Today our excursions took us to the Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center currently located on the campus of UNR (University of Northern Nevada) although potentially set to move elsewhere sometime in the future.

None of us had been to the planetarium before so we didn’t know what to expect. We were in all, pleasantly surprised as it turned out a pretty inexpensive way to spend around an hour and a half whilst slipping in a little education into the bargain.

The main attraction of the planetarium (at least for us) is the Star Theater where you can watch a variety of ‘movies’ projected on the large domed ceiling. We saw the Full-dome digital star entitled Black Holes which was an immersive look into the creation and formation of the black hole phenomena projected fully onto the domed roof. Despite not being a huge fan of astronomy myself, the 40 minute show was riveting and highly entertaining as well as being very educational.

The Sky Theater puts on a different show every hour (check their website for times and current shows) which at the time of writing includes The Human Body (a SkyDome 8/70 large-format feature film), DarkStar Adventure, The Secret Of The Cardboard Rocket and Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side Of The Moon animated in a riveting star show. These change throughout the year so there is plenty of value in planning to revisit the planetarium.

The theatre itself is a pretty small venue which is perfect because it means less rustling and talking through the experience. You are advised to arrive early because the best seats are at the back with the further forward you are increasing the amount of ‘neck-craning’ you’ll need to do to get the full experience.

Outside of the Star Theater, the Flieschmann Planetarium offers a small exhibit area featuring various space-related exhibits including a one tonne meteorite which fell in Nevada and weighing machine which gives your weight on the moon and jupiter.

The gift shop is also worth a look (you’ll pass through it at least 4 - 6 times anyway as you move among the attractions) as, aside from the usual novelty items like squishy alien heads and packets of astronaut style freeze dried ice cream, there are various educational books related to astronomy and space in general, as well as a good sized collection of Telescopes and binoculars for viewing the night sky at tax-exempt prices.

Entrance to the museum area was free when we visited with a charge of $5 for adults and $4 for kids to see each show in the Sky Theater. Check their website for current times and prices though as things like this change often. The website also currently features several money saving coupons you can use which took $3 off our entrance fee so it’s worth a look as well.

In all, we all enjoyed our visit and will probably check it out again sometime in the future so we can see one of the other movies at the Sky Theater.

Fleischmann Planetarium : http://planetarium.unr.nevada.edu/

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