The London Planetarium building is located on

Marylebone Road Marylebone Road ( ) is an important thoroughfare in central London, within the City of Westminster. It runs east–west from the Euston Road at Regent's Park to the A40 Westway at Paddington. The road which runs in three lanes in both direction ...

, London. It is adjacent to and owned by

Madame Tussauds Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in 1835 by French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as "Madame Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no longer us ...

. It previously housed a

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

, offering shows related to space and astronomy. In 2006, it closed as a separate attraction and became part of Madame Tussauds. Since 2010, the building that previously included the London Planetarium has housed the

Marvel Super Heroes 4D ''Marvel Super Heroes 4D'' is an animated 4D film that was launched at Madame Tussauds London on May 31, 2010. On April 26, 2012, an updated version of the film with a different plot was also opened at Madame Tussauds New York. On December 14, 2 ...

attraction.

History

The London Planetarium was opened by

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...

on 19 March 1958, with public presentations commencing on 20 March. It occupied the site of an old cinema destroyed in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and seated an audience of around 330 beneath a horizontal dome approximately 18m/60 ft in diameter. For its first five decades of operation, an optomechanical star projector, a

Zeiss projector A Zeiss projector is one of a line of planetarium projectors manufactured by the Carl Zeiss Company. Main models include Copernican (1924), Model I (1925), Model II (1926), Model III (1957), Model IV (1957), Model V (1965), Model VI (1968) ...

Mark IV, offered the audience a show based on a view of the night sky as seen from earth. Between 1977 and 1990, evening

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

performances called 'Laserium' (see Ivan Dryer) were held. In 1995, one of the world's first digital

systems,

Digistar II Digistar is the first computer graphics-based planetarium projection and content system. It was designed by Evans & Sutherland and released in 1983. The technology originally focused on accurate and high quality display of stars, including for the ...

, was installed in a £4.5 million redevelopment, allowing monochromatic 3D journeys through space and many other kinds of shows to be presented. The Planetarium was used to teach students from University College London's astronomy department the complexity of the

Celestial coordinate system Astronomical coordinate systems are organized arrangements for specifying positions of satellites, planets, stars, galaxies, and other celestial objects relative to physical reference points available to a situated observer (e.g. the true horizo ...

, allowing for practical lectures delivered by a team of planetarium and UCL staff. In 2004, the Planetarium was upgraded to a full-colour

Digistar 3 Evans & Sutherland is a pioneering American computer firm in the computer graphics field. Its current products are used in digital projection environments like planetariums. Its simulation business, which it sold to Rockwell Collins, sold products ...

system that allows both

pre-rendered Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputting or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of footage that was previously rendered on different equipment (typic ...

and real-time shows to transport the audience in an immersive full-dome video environment to distant realms of time and space. In January 2006, freelance journalist Paul Sutherland broke the news in the London ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' that the London Planetarium was being renamed the Auditorium and would replace astronomical presentations with entertainment shows.

subsequently announced that in July 2006 the Auditorium would open with a show by

Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited (also known as Aardman Studios, simply Aardman or Aardman Animation and stylised as AARDMAN as of 2022) is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. It is known for films made using stop-motion and clay an ...

about celebrities. To say 'farewell' to the Planetarium, Madame Tussauds allowed free entry to the show in its penultimate week (24–30 April 2006).

Directors

Dr. Henry C. King served as Scientific Director before opening and curating the

McLaughlin Planetarium The McLaughlin Planetarium is a former working planetarium whose building occupies a space immediately to the south of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, at 100 Queen's Park. Founded by a grant from philanthropist Colonel R. Samuel McLaughlin, ...

in Toronto, Canada.

John Ebdon John Ebdon (22 December 1923 – 19 March 2005) was a British author, broadcaster, Graecophile and, for 21 years, director of the London Planetarium. He was educated at Blundell's School. On his death, obituaries appeared in the ''Times'', ...

, author, broadcaster and Grecophile, was director of the London Planetarium (b. 1923 – d. 2005).

References

External links

Why Tussauds no longer has space for the Planetarium
– article from ''

London Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' by Paul Sutherland
It inspired generations of children, but now the Planetarium is focusing on lesser stars
Article from ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' by Joanna Bale {{Coord, 51, 31, 22, N, 0, 9, 20, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Planetaria in the United Kingdom Science and technology in the United Kingdom Tourist attractions in London Buildings and structures in the City of Westminster 1958 establishments in England 2006 disestablishments in England Defunct planetaria