Toyama Science Museum

Public shows at Toyama Science Museum: Yes

Science museum with 18 m planetarium and observatory. 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.

1-8-31 Nishinakano, Toyama, Toyama, Japan 939-8084. Phone +81 764-91-2123.

Toyama Science Museum has a 18 m (59 ft) dome and 242 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.

Its projection system is the Goto Virtuarium II, 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 Toyama Science Museum

Toyama Science Museum 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.

Toyama Science Museum 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 Nishinakano, Toyama (approximate): 36.670°N, 137.189°E.

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

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Toyama Science Museum

Nearest dark sky places

Observatories open to the public within 150 km

• Hida Observatory, Kyoto UniversityTakayama, Gifu, Japan, 47 km (29 mi). Annual summer open day and booked group visits; no regular public nights
• Kiso ObservatoryKiso, Nagano, Japan, 105 km (65 mi). Exhibits and dome viewing room open daily; annual open day in August with evening observing
• Usuda Star DomeSaku, Nagano, Japan, 123 km (76 mi). Public viewing through large telescope, 10 am-10 pm
• Usuda Star DomeSaku, Nagano, Japan, 126 km (78 mi). Public night viewing with 60cm reflector on open days; beginner astrophotography classes

Other planetariums within 150 km

• Yoshida Science Museum (Kurobe)Kurobe, Toyama, Japan, 32 km (20 mi), 20.0 m dome
• Kanazawa Kigoyama Astronomical Observation CenterKanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, 49 km (30 mi), 10.0 m dome
• Hida planetariumTakayama, Gifu, Japan, 59 km (36 mi), 9.0 m dome
• Yanagida Star Observation Center (Mantenboshi)Noto, Ishikawa, Japan, 68 km (42 mi), 12.0 m dome
• Ogawa Astronomical Observatory - Hoshi to Midori no Roman-kanOgawa, Nagano, Japan, 70 km (44 mi), 8.0 m dome

Toyama Science Museum record

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