The Planetarium Project

Amazingly, there is no planetarium in Edinburgh. We would love to construct a modest modern digital planetarium in the West Tower of the Observatory, which could be used for Schools parties, public visits, and education, as well as being a flexible meeting space.

The West Tower of the Observatory previously housed a sixteen inch Schmidt telescope, but this has now been moved to the National Museum, and the Tower is currently an empty shell. The UK ATC plans to reconstruct the lower part, making much needed new offices. With additional charitable funding, we can then convert the upper part to a Planetarium, putting in flooring, dome, projection system, computers, and flexible seating. This would make an intimate but inspiring space. The picture to the right shows an example of an intimate planetarium space at Drebach in Germany

​We have been in conversation wih a number of specialist companies to understand how to do this, and what it would cost. There are number of options, depending on the optical resolution and various other factors. The whole project would costs somewhere in the range £150-300K.