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St. Petersburg planetarium

Adrress: Alexandrovsky Park, 4, St Petersburg, 197101

Metro: Gorkovskaya station


Saint-Petersburg planetarium

The St. Petersburg planetarium occupies a part of the building of the former People's house — the building where before revolutionthe hall for amusements and readings (the so-called "Iron hall"/Zhelezny Zal) was located. The building was built in 1898-1900 on the initiative of Prince A. P. Oldenburgsky architect G. I. Lyutsedarsky. In 1910-1912 on the project Luchezarnogo the building was expanded — to build a Public Audience with an Opera hall. Currently, this building occupies the Music Hall.

The planetarium was opened in the building on November 4, 1959 and became the third planetarium in the USSR after Moscow and Volgograd.

There are 6 stationary halls in the planetarium (Star Hotel Hall, a small astronomical Observatory, Space Journey Hall, Planet Hall, Laboratory of Entertaining Experiments (LZO), RazioArt Gallery) and 1 mobile hall (Mobile Petersburg Planetarium). The director of the planetarium is M. A. Belov.

The star hall of the Petersburg Planetarium is one of the largest in Russia.

The dome of the hall, with a diameter of 25 meters and a height of 15 meters, is designed so that it is not visible from the outside of the building. Hall diameter: 23.5 meters, height: 14.5 meters.

Thanks to the “Planetarium” apparatus, one can see here how the sky changes during the day, the Sun and the planets outline their movement with bright trajectories, admire nebulae, the Milky Way, a solar eclipse and even make a cherished desire for a “falling star”.

Along with astronomy and cosmonautics lecture programs in this room, scientific meetings, conferences, and seminars are regularly held with astronauts and scientists who share their experiences and talk about the latest trends and discoveries in science.

Different programs are shown in the Star Hall of the St. Petersburg Planetarium, and visitors must choose which show and lecture they want to attend. There are activities for children of primary school age, and there are serious lecture cycles for high school students.

The Astronomical Observatory of the Petersburg Planetarium is designed to observe celestial objects with several telescopes.
The dome of the tower has a diameter of 5.25 meters and a height of 5 meters.

The Observatory has telescopes:

  • Meade LX-200, Schmidt-Kessegren system with a mirror diameter of 250 millimeters, with an increase from 40 to 650 times, allows you to see stars up to 12th magnitude, star clusters, binary and multiple stars, nebulae, galaxies, the Moon and planets.
  • Meade ETX - a computer-controlled telescope for outdoor observations with a magnification of 15 to 150 times allows you to see stars up to the 10th magnitude, binary stars, open star clusters, the Moon and planets.
  • Coronado SolarMax - chromospheric telescope with the H-alpha filter, magnification from 10 to 100 times, allowing to see the chromosphere of the Sun, granules, prominences, fibers, flocculi and flashes.

The planetarium regularly conducts observations of important astronomical phenomena, and also invites you to admire the sky during night and evening observations. With a clear sky in the evenings, here you can observe planets, binary stars, star clusters, nebulae and other celestial objects. With a cloudless sky, telescope conversations are organized. And if the bad weather that happens in St. Petersburg often, you can hover a refractor telescope with a magnification of 15-20 times on the spire of the Peter and Paul Fortress and see very close the figure of the angel crowning this spire. The Observatory also has a virtual observation room, where preliminary talks are held before the observations.

At the same time, few people are allowed into the observatory, so it’s worthwhile to clarify the opportunity to look through telescopes in advance.

Hall "Planetka" Petersburg Planetarium

The "Planetka" Hall of the Petersburg Planetarium is a small hall equipped with a circular panorama.

Here tireless travelers can make amazing geographical discoveries, sink to the bottom of the ocean and even go to the icy continent. The youngest explorer is a cheerful hero Planetas calling to go on an exciting journey to find mysterious star birds, to visit the moon and even on the surface of Mars!

School groups in this room, as well as in the Star room, and in the Laboratory of Entertaining Experiences, regularly conduct classes on educational cycles, which are a wonderful and interactive addition to school lessons.
In this room, astronomy, local history, geography, environmental studies, etc., classes are held. The hall is mainly used to train the youngest and youngest spectators. Teachers reserve lectures in this room in advance and attend them in whole groups.

The laboratory of entertaining experiments of the Petersburg planetarium was created on the principles of the House of Entertaining Science, organized in 1935 in Leningrad on the initiative and with the participation of Ya. I. Perelman. But the organizers of the Laboratory of entertaining experiments in the Planetarium do not directly repeat the experiments of outstanding popularizers of science, but develop their own.

The exposition of the Laboratory includes more than 200 experiments in optics, electricity, and mechanics.A special section is devoted to measuring and feeling time. Here you can find out whether it is possible to stand on an electric light bulb and not crush it, whether it is possible to roll upwards along an inclined plane and much more.

Here you can see the Foucault pendulum, clearly illustrating the rotation of the Earth. The length of the filament of the Foucault pendulum in the St. Petersburg Planetarium is about 8 meters.

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