The Planetarium

 

Firstly - thanks for your concern, and for the persistence following it up - I agree with a lot of what you said, and it's a bit depressing how few complaints we get about the lack of upgrades here.
Your complaints I think fall into three areas:
* the presenter, who will be re-trained this weekend if necessary (his tendency to talk and talk has been picked up by us, not sure if was before or after you visited);
* the equipment - the current equipment is of the older generation, to replace it (with e.g. fulldome video) will obviously be expensive, but it is something we are investigating;
* the show itself - this is a bit of a headache - it's dated, but when we look around at the other shows available, it is fundamentally a good format - the kids do join in with the counting, and respond. Most of the other shows available are more of a sit-and-listen format. This got us headed in the direction of creating our own replacement show, which is quite a task. We also have another show which needs the same attention, which is probably in a worse state than the Space Travel show. One thing I will do though is look around again for something that could work for the Saturday morning audiences - the current show is run Saturdays and also for schools during the week.

Attended Kids party show in about March 2011. I'm afraid the improvements mentioned in the 2009 response, at least as regards the show content, don't seem to have been realized. In particular the outdated slides and songs, the long winded host monologue, the. Mediocre attempts at identifying constellations, and most of all the failure to utilize the potential of the specialized screen and projection equipment to give the kids a sense of wonder they can't get from the small screen.
In the days of Hubble on the Internet, CGI on the cinema screen, and Discovery Channel on TV, the planetarium desperately needs to up its game if It is going to avoid having the opposite effect to the intended: To inspire the next generation as to the excitement and importance of astronomy and space.
The kids seemed to enjoy it but I know there's so much more possible.

I would agree with all the complaints of your correspondent, and all I can say in response is, we’re working on it, specifically:

* expanding our retail area to deal with larger crowds
* training extra staff for the above
* expanding the display area to give people something to do while waiting
* new show is in the very early planning stages (one of our other shows is even worse, so it’s being prioritized)

It’s unfortunately difficult to schedule the parties into a different show, due to the limited number of hours in the day . . .

Visited Planetaruim on Saturday 20 June with my sister's kids. Show started 20 minutes late. There were at least 3 birthday groups and I feel that birthday parties should be done as private functions as to not inconvenience normal paying public. I personally found the show terribly outdated with photo's that looked like a 1980's kiddies TV show and the honky tonk music and lyrics. However, my sisters kids did enjoy the show regardless...

Educational and fun. The space travel show is fun, informative and told through the eyes of children with music. A wonderful way to familiarise your children with the sky. Highly recommended.