Sophia Sakai Planetarium

Public shows at Sophia Sakai Planetarium: Yes

City planetarium with live shows, weekend family programs, school projections. 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.

1426 Fukaishimizu-cho, Naka-ku, Sakai, Osaka, Japan 599-8273. Phone +81 722-70-8110.

Sophia Sakai Planetarium has a 18 m (59 ft) dome and 166 seats

That makes it a mid-size dome, typical of science museums and large universities. The largest planetarium domes in the world are about 35 m across; a classroom dome is 5 to 8 m.

It runs an optical star projector, the Konica-Minolta Infinium Beta, together with a Konica-Minolta Geministar III digital system: the star ball gives pinpoint stars, the digital system fills the dome with video.

How dark the real sky is outside Sophia Sakai Planetarium

Sophia Sakai Planetarium 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.

Sophia Sakai Planetarium 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 Fukai area, Naka-ku, Sakai (approximate): 34.528°N, 135.505°E.

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

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Sophia Sakai Planetarium

Nearest dark sky places

Observatories open to the public within 150 km

• Kwasan ObservatoryKyoto, Japan, 58 km (36 mi). Public open days and observing events on scheduled dates, booking required

Other planetariums within 150 km

• Subaru Hall Planetarium (The Pleiades Hall)Tondabayashi, Osaka, Japan, 9 km (6 mi), 20.0 m dome
• Osaka Science MuseumOsaka, Osaka, Japan, 18 km (11 mi), 26.0 m dome
• Itami City Culture and Science Museum for ChildrenItami, Hyogo, Japan, 30 km (19 mi), 14.0 m dome
• Bando Kobe Youth Science Museum (Kobe Science Museum)Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, 31 km (19 mi), 20.0 m dome
• Inagawa Observatory (Astropia)Inagawa, Hyogo, Japan, 42 km (26 mi), 5.0 m dome

Sophia Sakai Planetarium record

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