Planetarium Programs
Planetarium Programs are included with admission.
Tycho to the Moon
10:00 a.m.
Saturday-Sunday
Meet Tycho, a dog who doesn’t just howl at the Moon, but wants to go there. Blast off on an amazing ride into space with Tycho and his young friends Ruby and Michael.
Learn about night and day, space travel, the phases of the Moon and features of the lunar surface. Take a close-up look at the Sun, watch the effects of gravity, see the Earth from space and watch meteors shoot across the night sky.
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)
Pānānā Kilo Hōkū
12:00 p.m.
Tuesday-Sunday
In 2017, Hawaiian voyaging canoes, Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia, completed a historic journey circumnavigating the world utilizing polynesian navigation and voyaging techniques.
The tools and techniques used by these modern day voyagers have been reconstructed from multiple knowledge sources for today’s application. In this program, an ʻImiloa Astronomer will help you learn and explore a few basic celestial wayfinding tools that are utilized by Hawaiʻi’s voyagers today.
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.