Week 19: Visiting a Planetarium

One of my Facebook-friends is a university lecturer. Every year, she takes her students to the Planetarium in Hove, near Antwerp. As I’d never been there before, I thought it would make a perfect date.

It was a cloudy evening when I got there, which left me feeling kind of disappointed upon arrival. However, that soon changed. We were all brought into a dome, a round theatre with comfortable chairs. Once we sat down, a sky full of stars was projected onto the ceiling, just as it would be on a clear night above Antwerp. We were shown the planets, constellations, all during the different hours of the night from dusk till dawn. It was very interesting, especially as we couldn’t see them in real life through the telescope because of the clouds.

Once this finished, the movie ‘Mars 1001’ was projected onto the ceiling. The theme was the first manned mission on Mars.

We were then allowed to go and look at the telescopes, with the promise that we would be welcome to return on a clear night.

The visit finished in the museum, where we could hold a real meteorite. This was in fact the first meteorite I have ever held. It was heavier than I expected, since it was only a little piece.

Thanks Annie, for the idea of visiting the planetarium!