Wow! I had no idea we had such a cool educational resource within an hour's drive of North Austin. Thanks to my son's Cub Scout pack, I had the pleasure of experiencing the Mayborn Science Theater & Planetarium at Central Texas College in Killeen last night, and I'm sure we'll be back again someday.
YMMV on a regular visit for a film or laser show, but we were doing their special monthly "Snore and Explore" overnight sleepover ($36 per scout, $18 per parent, max of 50 participants) http://www.starsatnight.org/go-beyond/scouts/. This included several interactive educational exercises led by a knowledgeable teacher (who teaches math during her "real" job), viewing 4 different very cool modern films about science, astronomy, and space exploration, and spending about an hour having a guided planet and constellation exploration using the Uniview and Startalk functionality in the planetarium.
The patience the staff showed to our group of rambunctious boys ages 6 to 12 was phenomenal, and their passion for the subject matter was obvious.
If we lived closer, I'd definitely be interested in their birthday party packages and Family Membership (only $100 for a year, includes up to 5 people from the same address and gets you into almost everything for free for that year).
Like another reviewer mentioned, this place has the A/C set at about 42 degrees, so don't forget to bring your sweater or Snuggie for any event. I was so glad that I had brought a jacket and a very fluffy sleeping bag for the sleepover. While you're at it, if you are doing the sleepover, be sure to also bring a good foam or even inflatable camping pad, as the carpeted floor has no cushion what-so-ever.
Mayborn is a part of the Association of Science and Technology Centers, meaning they honor reciprocal memberships, and you may gain free or discounted entry if you're already a member of another ASTC member organization. Conversely, if you become of member of Mayborn, you may also gain free or discounted entry to many other cool centers, such as the Thinkery, McDonald Observatory, Houston Children's Museum, the Texas Museum of Science and Technology in Cedar Park, San Antonio Children's Museum, and so on. http://www.astc.org/passport/
Check out the available show catalog here:
http://www.starsatnight.org/about/show-catalog/
Oh, and if you're into that sort of thing, you may be interested to know that Mayborn also hosts the annual GeekFest convention in August. http://www.geekfest.ctcd.edu/ read more