Tochigi Prefectural Children's Science Museum

Public shows at Tochigi Prefectural Children's Science Museum: Yes

Science museum with 20 m dome planetarium. 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.

567 Nishikawada-machi, Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan 321-0151. Phone +81 286-59-5555.

Tochigi Prefectural Children's Science Museum has a 20 m (66 ft) dome and 280 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.

Its star projector is the Goto GL-AT, an optical instrument that shines pinpoint stars through a ball of lenses, the classic planetarium sky.

How dark the real sky is outside Tochigi Prefectural Children's Science Museum

Tochigi Prefectural Children's 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.

Tochigi Prefectural Children's 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 Tochigi Children's Science Museum (map embed): 36.513°N, 139.835°E.

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

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Tochigi Prefectural Children's Science Museum

Nearest dark sky places

Observatories open to the public within 150 km

• National Astronomical Observatory of JapanMitaka, Tokyo, Japan, 97 km (60 mi). Mitaka campus open daily for a free self-guided historic-telescope tour; regular stargazing evenings by lottery
• National Astronomical Observatory of JapanMitaka, Tokyo, Japan, 97 km (60 mi). Mitaka campus open daily 10 am-5 pm, free; solar observation weekends; regular stargazing open course
• Usuda Star DomeSaku, Nagano, Japan, 125 km (78 mi). Public night viewing with 60cm reflector on open days; beginner astrophotography classes
• Usuda Star DomeSaku, Nagano, Japan, 131 km (81 mi). Public viewing through large telescope, 10 am-10 pm

Astronomy clubs within 150 km

• Astronomical Society of JapanMitaka, Japan, 95 km (59 mi)

Other planetariums within 150 km

• Saitama City Youth Space Science MuseumSaitama (Urawa-ku), Saitama, Japan, 69 km (43 mi), 23.0 m dome
• Gunma Prefectural Lifelong Learning Center Youth Science MuseumMaebashi, Gunma, Japan, 70 km (43 mi), 18.0 m dome
• Saitama City Space TheaterSaitama, Saitama, Japan, 70 km (43 mi), 23.0 m dome
• Takasaki Youth Science CenterTakasaki, Gunma, Japan, 76 km (47 mi), 21.0 m dome
• Kawaguchi City Science Museum (Science World, SKIP City)Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan, 76 km (47 mi), 20.0 m dome

Tochigi Prefectural Children's Science Museum record

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