Our planetarium which formed a special feature in the industrial exhibition held in the year 1965 (01.02.1965) is functioning under the administration of the ministry of science and technology and it is open for you.
The state engineering corporation constructed the massive building stricture. Dr. N. S. Kulasinghe planned and designed the structure of the building. German engineers constructed the inner dome of the planetarium. The main equipment was donated by East Germany. In 1999, the Japanese government donated a mobile planetarium, extra projectors, and Audio & Video systems.
In 1968, the planetarium was handed over to the ministry of education and culture. In 1998, it was handed over to the ministry of science & technology.
The planetarium located in the old racecourse, Colombo is housed in a concrete building having interior bent pillars, and rising upward nearly 100 feet from the ground resembles a bloomed flower of a unique formation. You can reach the planetarium by coming along the Stanley wijesundara mawatha, Colombo 7.
The planetarium having a seating capacity for 570 visitors exhibits the natural events in the universe by an artificial device upon a hemispherical screen which has been built overhead within the building by utilizing a giant universal projector which can project stars and planets visible to the to the naked eye. Several additional projectors are utilized for the purpose of explaining the events relating to solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, and thunder lightning and comets etc.
There is a possibility of reproducing natural astronomical events, which occurred several days, weeks, months or a year or thousands of years back as well as those, which are likely to happen in the future. A part from these, you will be able to see for yourself the sky as seen from any place on the earth, may be from the northern pole or from the southern pole.
At the planetarium, you have the opportunity to see the mid night sun as visible from a country located in the arctic or Antarctic Circle.