18:30
First Light
Our gentlest show: how eyes adapt to darkness, and what to look for tonight. Recommended before any viewing night.
35 MIN · ALL AGES
◍ TONIGHT AT ZENITH
The sky is doing things
Planetarium shows run in all weather. The telescope opens when the sky cooperates; we post the call at 17:00 sharp.
19:45
The Slow Comets
Icy visitors on thousand-year clocks: where they sleep, why they wake, and the comet due back the year you turn ninety.
40 MIN · AGES 8+
21:00
Deep Field
One patch of apparently empty sky, magnified until it holds ten thousand galaxies. Quiet, enormous, and our staff favourite.
45 MIN · AGES 12+
ON THE SCHEDULE, WEATHER WILLING
- SaturnRA 23h 04m · DEC −07° 41′rings tilted 11°, best after 22:30
- M31 · AndromedaRA 00h 42m · DEC +41° 16′naked-eye from the ridge on clear nights
- AlbireoRA 19h 30m · DEC +27° 57′gold-and-sapphire double star, crowd favourite
- Waxing MoonRA 14h 11m · DEC −12° 03′terminator craters through the 20 cm refractor
◍ THE FLOOR
Exhibits you can stand under
Three permanent halls, rebuilt slowly and stubbornly since 1974. No screens where an object will do.
The Ring Room
A four-metre ringed giant you can walk beneath. Stand under the ring plane and watch it thin to a knife-edge, the same trick Saturn plays every fifteen years.
Dirty Snowball
A one-tonne comet nucleus reconstruction, kept at −20 °C behind glass. Touch the meteorite beside it: it is 4.5 billion years old and has been patient.
Terminator Line
A crescent moon two storeys tall, lit by a slow artificial sun. Watch shadows crawl across crater floors: a lunar day compressed into eight minutes.
◍ THE INSTRUMENT
The Meridian Eye
Our main instrument is a 0.61-metre Cassegrain, installed in 1974 and resurfaced twice since. It has watched two comets arrive unannounced, one supernova in a neighbouring galaxy, and roughly four hundred thousand first looks at Saturn, which remain, by unanimous staff vote, the best part of the job.
- APERTURE
- 0.61 m
- FOCAL RATIO
- f/8
- MOUNT
- Equatorial fork
- FIRST LIGHT
- 14 MAR 1974
- LIMITING MAG.
- +15.2 visual
- OLDEST PHOTON SHOWN
- ≈ 12 billion yrs
“The first time the dome opened, our six-year-old whispered. She whispered the whole drive home.”
Visitor log, 22 June 2025
◍ PLAN A VISIT
Getting here is half the dark
HOURS
- Wed – Sun13:00 – 23:30
- Viewing nightsSat, gates 21:00
- Mon – TueClosed (we sleep)
- Full-moon weeksPlanetarium only
ADMISSION
- Adults$14
- Under 16$8
- Under 5Free
- Viewing night add-on$6
- Planetarium show$5
- Ridge parkingFree
FINDING US
9 Cinder Ridge Road, forty minutes past the last streetlight. Use red headlamp mode on the final path; your eyes will thank you within the hour. Dress for ten degrees colder than town.
◍ MEMBERSHIP
Adopt a sky
Members keep the dome turning. In exchange: the ridge, whenever it is dark.
Stargazer
$48 / yr
- Unlimited daytime admission
- Two viewing-night passes
- Member newsletter, on paper
Astronomer
$96 / yr
- Everything in Stargazer
- Unlimited viewing nights
- Eyepiece time on the 0.61 m
- Guest pass every visit
Deep Field
$220 / yr
- Everything in Astronomer
- Annual all-night session
- Name on a ridge bench
- Family admission, always
◍ FOR SCHOOLS
Field trips that end in silence
A Zenith school visit is ninety minutes: one planetarium show, one exhibit hall, and, for autumn and winter bookings, ten minutes of real telescope time per class. Teachers receive a sky chart pack keyed to their term. We have hosted 214 schools; the record for longest stunned silence is 74 seconds, set by a year-five class meeting Saturn.
- SCHOOLS HOSTED
- 214
- STUDENTS / YEAR
- 11 400
- COST PER STUDENT
- $4
- BURSARY PLACES
- 1 IN 5