Aso Luna Astronomical Observatory (Aso Luna Tenmondai)

Public shows at Aso Luna Astronomical Observatory (Aso Luna Tenmondai): Yes

Observatory night viewing sessions and 4K planetarium; lodging on site. 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.

1810 Shirakawa, Minamiaso, Kumamoto, Japan 869-1502. Phone +81 967-62-3006.

Aso Luna Astronomical Observatory (Aso Luna Tenmondai) has a 6 m (20 ft) dome and 40 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 4K digital planetarium, 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 Aso Luna Astronomical Observatory (Aso Luna Tenmondai)

Aso Luna Astronomical Observatory (Aso Luna Tenmondai) 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.

Aso Luna Astronomical Observatory (Aso Luna Tenmondai) 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 Minamiaso, Kumamoto (approximate): 32.822°N, 131.030°E.

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

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Aso Luna Astronomical Observatory (Aso Luna Tenmondai)

Nearest dark sky places

Other planetariums within 150 km

• Kumamoto City MuseumKumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan, 31 km (19 mi), 16.0 m dome
• Fukuoka Prefectural Youth Science MuseumKurume, Fukuoka, Japan, 73 km (45 mi), 23.0 m dome
• Ryugatake MYU-I Astronomical ObservatoryKamiamakusa, Kumamoto, Japan, 78 km (48 mi), 5.0 m dome
• Kirishima Kita Cosmo DomeKobayashi, Miyazaki, Japan, 93 km (58 mi), 8.0 m dome
• Saga Prefectural Space and Science Museum (Yumeginga)Takeo, Saga, Japan, 103 km (64 mi), 18.0 m dome

Aso Luna Astronomical Observatory (Aso Luna Tenmondai) record

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