Joetsu Kiyosato Star Hometown Museum (Hoshi no Furusato-kan)

Public shows at Joetsu Kiyosato Star Hometown Museum (Hoshi no Furusato-kan): Yes

Small digital planetarium plus public observatory; stargazing events. 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.

3436-2 Aoyagi, Joetsu, Niigata, Japan 943-0531. Phone +81 255-28-7227.

Joetsu Kiyosato Star Hometown Museum (Hoshi no Furusato-kan) has a 8 m (26 ft) dome and 52 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 projection system is the Stella Dome pro, a digital fulldome system that can fly the audience through the solar system as well as show the night sky.

How dark the real sky is outside Joetsu Kiyosato Star Hometown Museum (Hoshi no Furusato-kan)

Joetsu Kiyosato Star Hometown Museum (Hoshi no Furusato-kan) 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.

Joetsu Kiyosato Star Hometown Museum (Hoshi no Furusato-kan) 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 town center of Kiyosato, Joetsu (approximate): 37.148°N, 138.236°E.

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

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Joetsu Kiyosato Star Hometown Museum (Hoshi no Furusato-kan)

Nearest dark sky places

Observatories open to the public within 150 km

• Usuda Star DomeSaku, Nagano, Japan, 106 km (66 mi). Public night viewing with 60cm reflector on open days; beginner astrophotography classes
• Usuda Star DomeSaku, Nagano, Japan, 108 km (67 mi). Public viewing through large telescope, 10 am-10 pm
• Hida Observatory, Kyoto UniversityTakayama, Gifu, Japan, 130 km (81 mi). Annual summer open day and booked group visits; no regular public nights

Other planetariums within 150 km

• Ogawa Astronomical Observatory - Hoshi to Midori no Roman-kanOgawa, Nagano, Japan, 63 km (39 mi), 8.0 m dome
• Yoshida Science Museum (Kurobe)Kurobe, Toyama, Japan, 77 km (48 mi), 20.0 m dome
• Yanagida Star Observation Center (Mantenboshi)Noto, Ishikawa, Japan, 104 km (65 mi), 12.0 m dome
• Saku City Children's Future Center (Kodomo Miraikan)Saku, Nagano, Japan, 106 km (66 mi), 16.0 m dome
• Toyama Science MuseumToyama, Toyama, Japan, 107 km (67 mi), 18.0 m dome

Joetsu Kiyosato Star Hometown Museum (Hoshi no Furusato-kan) record

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