Kawabe Astronomical Park (Kawabe Tenmon Koen)

Public shows at Kawabe Astronomical Park (Kawabe Tenmon Koen): Yes

Planetarium and public observatory with 1 m-class telescope; night observing sessions. Check the official site for the current schedule and tickets before you go.

A planetarium show is the one astronomy outing that clouds and city lights cannot cancel. Most public shows run 30 to 50 minutes; live shows, where a presenter flies the sky to tonight's planets and constellations, are the best preparation for a night at a dark site. Shows often sell out on weekends and school holidays.

2107-1 Wasa, Hidakagawa, Wakayama, Japan 649-1443. Phone +81 738-53-1120.

Kawabe Astronomical Park (Kawabe Tenmon Koen) has a 11 m (36 ft) dome and 90 seats

That makes it a small dome, typical of schools, colleges and portable shows. The largest planetarium domes in the world are about 35 m across; a classroom dome is 5 to 8 m.

Its star projector is the Konica-Minolta Cosmoleap 10 (SPS), an optical instrument that shines pinpoint stars through a ball of lenses, the classic planetarium sky.

How dark the real sky is outside Kawabe Astronomical Park (Kawabe Tenmon Koen)

Kawabe Astronomical Park (Kawabe Tenmon Koen) has no Bortle rating in the list yet. The scale below shows what each class looks like.

Sky brightness and class come from the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness (Falchi et al. 2016, CC BY-NC 4.0), with natural skyglow added, at the coordinates below. Planetariums sit in towns, so the dome shows the sky the street outside cannot; the dark sky places nearby show the real one.

Kawabe Astronomical Park (Kawabe Tenmon Koen) among the planetariums of Japan

Pink dots are planetariums, green dots observatories open to the public, squares dark sky places and diamonds star parties; select one for its page. See Planetariums in Japan for the full list.

The coordinates on this page point to Hidakagawa town, Wakayama (approximate): 33.900°N, 135.270°E.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Open the larger map · Directions.

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Kawabe Astronomical Park (Kawabe Tenmon Koen)

Nearest dark sky places

Observatories open to the public within 150 km

• Kwasan ObservatoryKyoto, Japan, 131 km (81 mi). Public open days and observing events on scheduled dates, booking required

Other planetariums within 150 km

• Kimino Town Misato ObservatoryKimino, Wakayama, Japan, 29 km (18 mi), 5.0 m dome
• Wakayama municipal child science MuseumWakayama, Wakayama, Japan, 38 km (24 mi), 12.0 m dome
• Anan City Science CenterAnan, Tokushima, Japan, 56 km (35 mi), 3.0 m dome
• Sophia Sakai PlanetariumSakai, Osaka, Japan, 73 km (45 mi), 18.0 m dome
• Subaru Hall Planetarium (The Pleiades Hall)Tondabayashi, Osaka, Japan, 73 km (46 mi), 20.0 m dome

Kawabe Astronomical Park (Kawabe Tenmon Koen) record

From the site's planetariums dataset (planetariumsglobal_q426). Distances are computed from the coordinates.