Group and School Programs
We offer a variety of programs that compliment preschool, elementary, middle, and high school course work.
Our programs also provide enriching entertainment for clubs and social groups.
Feature Programs
Feature programs include immersive full-dome video, narration, music, and special effects devoted to a single topic. These programs are usually followed by a brief look at the bright stars and constellations found in the current evening sky.
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Larry Cat in Space
Recommended Audience: Preschool - Grade 3
Available in SpanishLarry Cat in Space is the story of an inquisitive cat who stows away in his owner's baggage and becomes the first cat on the Moon. What problems will Larry encounter first as a weightless cat and then as a lunar lightweight?
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One World, One Sky: Big Bird's Adventure
Recommended Audience: Preschool - Grade 3
Available in Spanish
$60 minimum chargeFrom China to America, explore the night sky with Sesame Street's Big Bird, Elmo, and their new friend from China, Hu Hu Zhu! This delightful program is full of songs and laughter for children of all ages!
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The Little Star That Could
Recommended Audience: Recommended Audience: Kindergarten - Grade 4
The Little Star That Could is a charming story about an average yellow star in search of a name and planets of his own to warm and protect. Along the way, he meets other stars, learns what makes each star special, and discovers that stars combine to form star clusters and galaxies.
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Back To The Moon for Good
Recommended Audience: Grade 3 and up
It has been more than forty years since the last American astronaut walked on the Moon. Back to the Moon for Good, narrated by Tim Allen, traces our first steps on the Moon and how lunar exploration benefits us all. The program then explores the wealth of knowledge and resources gained by a return to the Moon, focusing on the Google Lunar XPRIZE - a $30 million prize offered the first non-governmental teams to successfully send robotic missions to the Moon.
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Cosmic Colors
Recommended Audience: Grade 3 and up
Cosmic Colors takes you on a wondrous journey across the electromagnetic spectrum. Discover why the sky is blue and Mars is red. Explore how the human eye works. Then travel deep inside a plant leaf. Along the way, investigate the x-rays radiated by a monstrous black hole. Get ready for an amazing adventure under a rainbow of cosmic light!
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From Earth to the Universe
Recommended Audience: Grade 3 and up
The night sky, both beautiful and mysterious, has been the subject of campfire stories, ancient myths and awe for as long as there have been people. A desire to comprehend the universe may well be humanity's oldest shared intellectual experience. Yet only recently have we truly begun to grasp our place in the vast cosmos.
Now, experience this journey of celestial discovery. Journey from the world of the ancient Greek astronomers to today's grandest telescopes. Then travel to the various worlds in the Solar System and experience the ferocity of the scorching Sun. From Earth to the Universe then leaves our home system to take you to the colorful birthplaces and burial grounds of stars, and still further out, beyond the Milky Way, to the unimaginable immensity of the universe.
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Flight Adventures
Recommended Audience: Grade 3 and up
Discover the science of flight through the eyes of a young girl and her grandfather as they explore how birds soar and aircraft fly. Learn the history of flight and explore the future of aviation - including how NASA is discovering new and safer ways to fly.
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MUSICA - Why is the Universe Beautiful
Recommended Audience: Grade 3 and up
A flower, the sound of a forest, a sunset, the stars overhead...
A girl is mesmerized by the beauty of Nature and asks, "Why do I sense beauty?"
A quiet pianist who calls himself "Musica" shows her the common elements hiding in both music and nature. And so begins the endless conversation she has with Musica... and the universe.
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Planet Nine
Recommended Audience: Grade 3 and up
Follow Astronomer Mike Brown and his CalTech team as they discover evidence of a Kuiper Belt object 10 times more massive than Earth, and embark on the search for a new ninth planet far beyond the orbit of Neptune.
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Sunstruck!
Recommended Audience: Grade 3 and up
Travel back in time to experience the birth of our Sun and solar system. Discover how the Sun came to support life, how it threatens life as we know it, and how the Sun's energy will one day fade away. Experience our unique star, the Sun, in Sunstruck!
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Two Small Pieces of Glass: The Amazing Telescope
Recommended Audience: Grade 3 and up
Two Small Pieces of Glass: The Amazing Telescope follows two students as they explore the night sky with an astronomer at a local star party. Along the way, the students learn the history of the telescope from Galileo's child-like spyglass - using two small pieces of glass - to the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the future of astronomy. Geared to engage audiences of all ages, the show explores the wonders discovered by astronomers over the last 400 years.
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Cosmic Castaways
Recommended Audience: Grade 3 and up
There are places where the night sky has no constellations. No Orion, no Big Dipper, nothing but a few lonely, far away stars and a few faint, ghostly patches of light. Most stars lie within the crowded boundaries of galaxies, travelling with their brothers and sisters in a vast galactic family. However, some stars find themselves on their own, deep within voids between the galaxies. These are the cosmic castaways.
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Habitat Earth: Living In a Connected World
Recommended Audience: Grade 4 and up
$60 minimum charge
Available in SpanishDive below the ocean's surface to explore the dynamic relationships found in kelp forest ecosystems, travel beveath the forest floor to see how Earth's tallest trees rely on tiny fungi to survive, and journey to new heights to witness the intricate intersection between human and ecological networks.
Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Frances McDormand, this 2015 show from the Morrison Planetarium features stunning visualizations of both biological and human-built networks (and of how they intersect), taking show-goers on an incredible, immersive journey through the interconnectedness of life on Earth.
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Life: A Cosmic Story
Recommended Audience: Grade 4 and up
$60 minimum chargeLife: A Cosmic Story tells the 14 billion year saga of how we came to be. Narrated by Jodie Foster, it is a journey from the microscopic view inside a plant cell to the vastness of our universe populated by billions of galaxies swirling in space.
Life: A Cosmic Story won the "Best Fulldome Program" category at 2011 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival.
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Revealing Light's Secrets: The Cosmic Origins Spectograph
Recommended Audience: Grade 4 and up
Revealing Light's Secrets: The Cosmic Origins Spectograph looks at spectroscopy, the science of light. Discover how scientists study the universe by deciphering clues hidden in the light from distant objects.
Revealing Light's Secrets highlights the current research of the Cosmic Origins Spectograph (or COS) flying aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, the last instrument installed by the NASA astronauts. The COS gives us an unprecedented view into the vast spaces between galaxies surrounding our own Milky Way.
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Seeing!
Recommended Audience: Grade 4 and up
A photon's journey across space, time, and the mind. Narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, this pnaetarium show is based on the PBS documentary Sight - The Story of Vision. Seeing! explores the science, technology, and medicine allowing us to understand how sight works, cure diseases of the eye, and correct vision.
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Undiscovered Worlds: The Search Beyond Our Sun
Recommended Audience: Grade 4 and up
Humans have long imagined exotic and intriguing worlds beyond our solar system. However in recent years, science fiction has become science fact. In Undiscovered Worlds: The Search Beyond Our Sun, discover what our sophisticated telescopes and detection techniques reveal about worlds beyond the eight planets of our Sun.
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Dark Matter Mystery
Recommended Audience: Grade 5 and up
What keeps galaxies together? What are the building blocks of the universe? What makes the universe look the way it looks today? Researchers all around the world try to answer these questions. We know today that approximately a quarter of the universe is filled with a mysterious glue: dark matter. We know that it is out there. However, we have no idea what it is made out of.
This planetarium show takes you on the biggest quest contemporary astrophysics. You will see why we know that dark matter exists, and how this search is one of the most challenging and exciting searches science has to offer. Join the scientists on their hunt for dark matter with experiments in space and deep underground. Will they be able to solve the dark matter mystery?
Short Subjects
These full-dome short subjects are included free upon request, following any regular program.
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Losing the Dark
Recommended Audience: Grade 3 and up
6 minutes in lengthStarry skies are a vanishing treasure because light pollution is washing away our view of the cosmos. It not only threatens astronomy but also disrupts wildlife, and affects human health. The glows over cities and towns - seen so clearly from space - are testament to the billions of dollars spent in wasted energy by lighting up the sky.
Losing the Dark is the result of a collaboration between International Dark Sky Association and Loch Ness Productions. It introduces and illustrates some of the issues regarding light pollution and suggets three simple actions people can take to help mitigate it.
Sky Lectures
Sky lectures are live shows covering numerous topics. They may include special effect projectors to enhance the presentations. All sky lectures are about 60 minutes long. Sky lectures for preschoolers are about 45 minutes.
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The Sky of Day and Night
Recommended Audience: Grade 1 - 4
6 minutes in lengthChildren will be shown how to locate and name the four principal directions by using the Sun during the day and the Big Dipper and the North Star at night. They also will be shown how to identify bright stars, constellations, and any planets visible in the evening sky.
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The Sky Tonight
Recommended Audience: Grades 5 and up
6 minutes in lengthThis program begins with an introduction to the daytime sky. After the Sun sets, an introduction is made to such phenomena as twinkling, stellar magnitudes, and star colors. Various deep space objects will be pointed out an examined. Pupils will receive a star map and be instructed in its use.
On Demand
Additional programs, such as laboratory exercises or other special topics, are available upon request. See a list of on-demand shows.