Radford University Planetarium
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About the Radford University Planetarium
The Radford University Plantarium is open during the fall and spring semesters when Radford University is in regular session.
We will also have a number of summer shows that will be advertised on the planetarium calendar page.
Our planetarium is a state-of-the-art Digistar 5 system located in our 10-meter-diameter dome. We can seat up to 55 visitors for a show. (Please note that this is an absolute fire-code limit!) Our shows are open to the public and all of our shows are free. Our goal is education in all things astronomical, and everyone is welcome at our regular public showings. Dr. Rhett Herman (Professor of Physics, rherman@radford.edu) coordinates the planetarium and supervises a number of workstudy students who can run the shows.
The original Radford University Planetarium was constructed in 1970 when Curie Hall was built. The planetarium star projector was a Spitz/Goto Planetarium SG-8 Projector from Goto Optical Mfg. of Tokyo, Japan. It had 32 reclined planetarium seats within the 24-foot diameter dome, plus an additional 15 free-standing seats to accommodate larger groups. That facility served until December 2015, and had hosted over 40,000 total visitors since the start of public shows in the late fall of 1999.