Stardome Observatory & Planetarium's Education Programme Fascinating for Kids

Stardome Observatory & Planetarium is a public astronomical observatory situated in Cornwall Park in New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, and provides curriculum-based astronomy and space topics and activities to about 38,000 school pupils each year. This education programme covers all ages, from year level 1 to 13, and is funded primarily through the Education Department Learning Experiences Outside the Classroom (LEOTC) programme.

 

In addition to the LEOTC programme, sessions are also provided for kindergarten and pre-schoolers, university students, military personnel (primarily celestial navigation), geo-survey students, senior citizen, corporate and other specialised groups. Bookings usually comprise a planetarium feature show, a night-sky presentation, time exploring the foyer exhibits and displays, and selection from a 'classroom' session and other activities such as rocket launch demonstration, Matariki focus, and telescope viewing. They also hold wine and cheese evenings once a month (adults only) which are very popular.

 

The 1,000 square metres facility has two telescope domes and a planetarium, and the observatory has three primary functions: public outreach, education and research. There is a permanent staff of nine people who are supported by 18 part-time staff and some 30 volunteers, and unsurprisingly, Stardome received over 47,000 education visitors (including pre-schoolers, kindys and kohunga reo) during the last financial period.

 

They have more than 157,000 people through the front doors, either as an education trip to see a planetarium show as part of their public programmes, or just to look around their displays. Group bookings usually comprise a planetarium show with a seasonal night-sky presentation, time exploring the foyer and exhibits and displays and a ‘classroom’ session. Additional experiences can include telescope viewing, rocket launchingor a special focus on Matariki.

 

To find out more about Stardome Observatory & Planetarium please visit the website at http://www.stardome.org.nz .