With repairs and upgrades made to its projection system, the planetarium at Orange Coast College is welcoming visitors back to its out-of-this-world theater.
Visitors can tour the stars and beyond and go back in time to experience the birth of the solar system in high definition during screenings hosted in the domed theater on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Today, March 1, the planetarium will showcase some of the shows that will be available in the coming weeks during a grand reopening with free screenings hourly throughout the afternoon.
Most tickets for today’s screenings were snapped up quickly, but there will be a standby line available, Jessica Artinger, the planetarium’s project manager, said. There will be solar telescopes out for viewing, and the Dennis Kelly Aquarium will be open during the 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. community event.
The $24 million planetarium opened at Orange Coast College in 2019 but was soon a victim of the coronavirus pandemic and forced to close. It reopened in mid-2022, but Artinger said the digital projector for the 125-seat theater soon started having issues, likely from having sat dormant for so long.
But it has been repaired and had upgrades, she said, and now “the darks are really dark.”
“I’ve been here for three years, and I’ve never seen it so dark in there,” she said. “It is mindblowing how good everything looks.”
Along with the revolving schedule of films exploring space, the theater hosts laser light shows set to popular music. For example, next up is a show using the music of The Beatles on March 4 and then Metallica on March 5.
Friday night, the planetarium hosted a Planet Parade Star Party with telescopes available to see the alignment of six planets on the horizon.
And, on March 13, the planetarium will host a viewing party for the total lunar eclipse. That will go from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., with peak coverage starting at 11:26 p.m. There will be a special show in the theater that night.
RSVP for the eclipse viewing party at orangecoastcollege.edu/community/planetarium, and find more information on show times, tickets and the planetarium’s hours.
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