Sendai Astronomical Observatory

Public shows at Sendai Astronomical Observatory: Yes

Live sky commentary, children's and astronomy programs; Saturday evening hours to 9:30pm. 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.

9-29-32 Nishikigaoka, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan 989-3123. Phone +81 223-91-1300.

Sendai Astronomical Observatory has a 25 m (82 ft) dome and 270 seats

That makes it one of the large domes, built for big public shows. 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 Goto GSS Chiron Hybrid, together with a Hybrid optical plus digital digital system: the star ball gives pinpoint stars, the digital system fills the dome with video.

How dark the real sky is outside Sendai Astronomical Observatory

Sendai Astronomical Observatory 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.

Sendai Astronomical Observatory 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 Sendai Astronomical Observatory (map embed): 38.257°N, 140.755°E.

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

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Sendai Astronomical Observatory

Observatories open to the public within 150 km

• Sendai Astronomical ObservatorySendai, Miyagi, Japan, 10 km (6 mi). Exhibits and planetarium daily except some weekdays; public night viewing with the 1.3m telescope on set evenings

Other planetariums within 150 km

• Palette Osaki (Osaki Lifelong Learning Center) PlanetariumOsaki, Miyagi, Japan, 38 km (24 mi), 18.0 m dome
• Yamagata Prefectural Asahi Youth Nature HouseAsahi, Yamagata, Japan, 53 km (33 mi), 9.0 m dome
• Koriyama City Fureai Science Center - Space ParkKoriyama, Fukushima, Japan, 101 km (63 mi), 23.0 m dome
• Akita Furusato-mura - Hoshizora Tankenkan SpaciaYokote, Akita, Japan, 117 km (73 mi), 23.0 m dome
• Star House Cosmo WorldYurihonjo, Akita, Japan, 124 km (77 mi), 6.0 m dome

Sendai Astronomical Observatory record

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