UCLA’s window to the cosmos

Need some space from school? Come to a UCLA Planetarium show and relax as UCLA astronomy graduate students introduce you to the planets, stars and galaxies in our night sky. 

The UCLA Planetarium, located at the top of the Mathematical Sciences Building, puts on free shows on select Wednesday nights. Check the UCLA Planetarium website for a schedule of upcoming shows if you’re interested in attending. Pro tip: get to the planetarium at least 30 minutes early to snag a spot – the planetarium seats just 49 people.

Every planetarium show starts off with a 30-minute special topic presentation about a specific area of astronomy. The topics change weekly, but don’t worry if you miss a presentation – recordings of all previous special topic presentations are available on the UCLA Planetarium website.

After the special topic presentation, the presenter will move on to the night-sky show. UCLA’s star projector is the star of the night-sky show – it projects the celestial sphere onto the planetarium dome and creates the feeling that you’re among the stars.

If you’re lucky and the weather is clear, the planetarium offers telescope viewings after the show. The telescope at the UCLA Planetarium is actually so powerful that viewers can clearly observe cloud patterns on Jupiter.

So if you have space in your schedule, come to the UCLA Planetarium for an out-of-this-world experience right on campus.