The college also plans to add Sunday matinee programs in the near future
Santa Monica College will reopen its planetarium this month in a new home inside the recently completed Mathematics and Science Building, with public shows set to resume Nov. 14.
The planetarium, now located in room MSB 126 on the SMC main campus at 1900 Pico Blvd., features a 9-meter dome and a new Evans & Sutherland Digistar 4K projection system capable of full multimedia displays. The building, which opened earlier this year, is LEED Gold-certified for sustainability.
Weekly Friday evening programs will return with two shows: the 7 p.m. “Night Sky Show,” offering an overview of current astronomical events and visible constellations, and the 8 p.m. “Feature Show,” which explores a specific topic in greater depth.
The first feature, “Welcome to the Universe,” presented by planetarium lecturer Sarah Vincent, will guide visitors through the large-scale structure of the cosmos and the Milky Way. The Nov. 21 show, “Lunar Tour,” will explore the moon’s craters and Apollo landing sites.
When weather permits, the planetarium’s feature program will move outdoors to the new SMC Observatory, which houses a 0.7-meter CDK700 telescope — among the largest publicly accessible telescopes in the Los Angeles area. The college also plans to add Sunday matinee programs in the near future.
Tickets are available at introductory rates of $7 for adults and $4 for children ages 3 to 12 for a single show, or $14 and $8, respectively, for both shows. Tickets can be purchased at https://smc.edu/tickets.
