World’s largest planetarium set to open in Shanghai

After nearly five years of construction, the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, the world’s largest planetarium, is scheduled to open next week.

Due for its official opening on 18th July, the new attraction, generally referred to as the Shanghai Planetarium, will offer an Ultra HD dome theatre, digital sky theatre, education and research centre, and IMAX theatre, as well as permanent and temporary exhibit galleries, a solar telescope, and an observatory spread across a floor area of 38,000 metre².

Located in Pudong’s Nanhui area, the US$95 million project has a design based on three spheres with domes and curved lines suggesting the orbiting of the moon and earth - designed by USA-based Ennead Architects.

Looking forward to the opening, Lin Qing, Director of the Museum’s Research Centre was quoted by Ecns.cn - the official English-language website of China News Service (CNS) - as stating “this is arguably the largest (planetarium ) in the world (and) will be able to host visits by around 6,000 people a day

“We’re also looking forward to working with other museums around the world on the popularisation of astronomy.”

Technologies used at the attraction include data visualisation, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR). Highlights comprise 70 meteorites and more than 120 collections of artefacts.

Xin Ge, Deputy Director of the Museum, added “we (will) focus on creating an exciting experience for visitors so that they’ll leave the museum with a more curious mind for space and a love for astronomy.”

Xin went on to say that the Shanghai Astronomy Museum will organise stargazing and sun observation activities, while observatories with telescopes will offer HD observation of the surface of the moon and planets.

Images show concepts for the completed Shanghai Astronomy Museum. Credit: Ennead.