Planetarium

Witness South Central Pennsylvania’s largest Planetarium and immerse yourself in the cosmos!

With Spitz’s SciDome XD projection system, audiences can travel anywhere in extreme definition. Audiences are surrounded by visuals where our movie-like shows make you feel like your part of the show, including the sensation of flying on Earth or through the universe.

Whether it’s the night sky from Lancaster, Pa to Sydney, Australia to the moons of Jupiter or traveling to the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, you’ll see the universe in a whole new light, with the help of Starry Night Dome software.

Thanks to our 2015 Capital Campaign, our planetarium is no longer limited to astronomy and can now venture into the Earth Sciences. We can show you how the Arctic ice has changed over time, live locations of earthquakes, high definition satellite views of the Earth, and fly through the Grand Canyon with the assistance from The Layered Earth software.

Our expert staff of Planetarium Educators will be your guide, answer your questions, and personalize your experience. Be sure to see their own produced show, the Night Sky Tour, and see what’s currently visible while showcasing their own expertise and passion in astronomy!

SEEING! – A PHOTON’S JOURNEY ACROSS SPACE, TIME AND THE MIND

Sundays at 2 pm
Suggested for children in 5th grade to Adults

 View Trailer

Ride a photon across the galaxy to your mind’s eye and experience how we see.  From a photon’s creation to its journey across the galaxy into our eye, Seeing! reveals the structures of the eye and their functions, prior to taking a ride on the optic nerve creating the image that the brain sees.   Narrated by astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.

SECRET OF THE CARDBOARD ROCKET

Saturdays at 11:30 am
Sundays at 11:00 am

Embark on an amazing adventure as two children spend a night touring the solar system alongside their ship’s navigator, a talking astronomy book. This continues to be one of the most popular shows in the fulldome industry world-wide.

The narration track was edited in 2007 to account for the reclassification of Pluto as a Dwarf Planet. Pluto is still referred to as a “planet” – just not the “9th planet” or “last planet.” This encourages a thoughtful introduction and Q&A for students and families. Features a spectacular studio mix by Skywalker Sound.

PHANTOM OF THE UNIVERSE

Saturdays at 1:30 pm
Sundays at 1:00 pm

 View Trailer

The show reveals the first hints of its existence through the eyes of Fritz Zwicky, the scientist who coined the term “dark matter.” It describes the astral choreography witnessed by Vera Rubin in the Andromeda galaxy and then plummets deep underground to see the most sensitive dark matter detector on Earth, housed in a former gold mine.

From there, it journeys across space and time to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, speeding alongside particles before they collide in visually stunning explosions of light and sound, while learning how scientists around the world are collaborating to track down the constituents of dark matter.

NIGHT SKY TOUR –LIVE ASTRONOMY SHOW!

Saturdays at 2:30 pm
Sundays at 2:00 pm 

Suggested for children in 5th grade to Adults
Length: 35-40 Minutes + Q&A

Join the North Museum’s Astronomy Educators to explore the wonders of the night sky in our live planetarium show, Night Sky Tour! Witness the night sky come to life as you learn about the constellations among the stars, planets currently visible, our place in the cosmos, and more! Each of our Planetarium Educators will bring their own expertise to the Night Sky Tour program, making each show a different experience.