Planetarium Programs
Planetarium Programs are included with admission.
321…Lift Off
Tuesday-Sunday (Winter break, December 20-January 5th).
Elon is a hamster scientist who lives in a dump yard. He tries to fit in with the local rats’ community but nobody takes him seriously. The rats aren’t interested in his scientific experiments which often fail in practice. One day Elon hears a crash. In his garden he finds a crater and a damaged robot inside. How did he get here? Elon fixes the robot and finds out that he fell from a spaceship which is going to prepare Mars for colonization. But the ship leaves in three days. And that’s how Elon’s great adventure starts. Will he manage to get the robot back to his ship before it leaves with all the robot’s friends?
3-2-1 Liftoff! Is an adventurous animated fulldome film about courage and wits you need to have to get in space and back.
One Sky Project
11:00 a.m.
Tuesday-Sunday
One Sky Project is an international collaboration focused on increasing understanding about cultural and indigenous astronomy, its historical and modern applications, and how our One Sky connects us all.
Enjoy stories, presented in a series of short films, about the night sky from Hawaiʻi and cultures across the globe.
Films
The Samurai and the Stars (Japan)
The Forge of Artemis (Greece)
Thunderbird (Navajo)
Celestial Canoe (Canada)
Hawaiian Wayfinders (Hawaiʻi)
Mystery of the Christmas Star
12:00 p.m.
Tuesday-Sunday
Journey back 2000 years to Bethlehem to discover a possible scientific explanation for the star the wise men followed to find the baby Jesus.
This program investigates recorded sightings of significant astronomical events during the time of the birth of Christ. Investigators will see which of these signs in the sky could have been remarkable enough to cause the wise men to travel across the desert from Babylon just to see a newborn King. This modern retelling of the Christmas story is sure to charm and captivate audiences of all ages.
The Navigators
1:00 p.m.
Tuesday-Sunday
This immersive planetarium film tells the story of Māori, Pasifika and European Navigation towards Aotearoa New Zealand through the eyes of a budding navigator, Moko.
Like Moana in the Disney film, she steps into the world of her Pacific ancestors and onto the decks of their voyaging canoes. As a scientist and explorer, she takes the view of Earth from space and crosses cultures to witness the worlds of Captain Cook and the Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman.
With Moko, we stand alongside the navigators, explore their traditions, uncover their science, and wrap it all up in the space knowledge we have today.
Awesome Light
3:00 p.m.
Tuesday-Sunday
Hawaiians care for Maunakea as an elder and a sacred place that connects them to their place of origins. Astronomers from around the world care for Maunakea as a place to search for knowledge — it is here that the world’s most renowned observatories seek to understand the great questions of the universe.
See how Subaru Observatory studies distant solar systems — stars and planets that may be similar to our own. Learn how Gemini watched the death of a star in a far-off galaxy to understand how the universe seeds elements that form the building blocks of all matter. Marvel at CFHT’s Legacy Survey that has mapped many thousands of galaxies to figure out how structure in the universe was created. Explore a massive black hole at the center of our galaxy as viewed by W.M. Keck Observatory.