What an amazing resource that West Virginia University has opened up to the community! The WVU Planetarium and Observatory is located inside the university, but everyone is welcome to visit for tours and planetarium shows. Best of all: Planetarium shows and tours are free! But you need to make a reservation online, so they know who to expect. You can't just drop in.
There are several different shows you can see, all of them around 15 to 25 minutes, and all of them projected onto the planetarium dome. It's a full-spectrum experience. We chose one of the more popular shows, Dynamic Earth, voiced by Liam Neeson. I learned some cool things about the planets, like the fact that Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system because it has a greenhouse effect going on. All this time, I thought Mercury was the hottest because it's closest to the sun! I love learning new things.
Before the show, a grad student at WVU gave us a brief intro about space and planets, and asked my children questions about space. My kids know a lot about space, and they are cocky little buggers and like to impress people with their knowledge, so this was their time to shine. Honestly, even I was impressed with their space knowledge -- I had no idea my youngest child knew the number and name of Mars' moons! Dang.
After the show, you get to explore the planetarium's rooftop observatory. There's a huge telescope up there, and if you're visiting at night, you can see planets and stars. We were visiting during the day, though, so we didn't see much. But it was still neat to look through a huge telescope.
The planetarium is located on the PL floor, which is only accessible when staff members are there and ready to receive you. We got there a little early and were not able to access the PL floor until someone put a key in the elevator and let us go up. So if you get there early and can't get up to the planetarium, that's why. read more
