Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan

A major critique I’ll leave is that the planetarium only has a small handful of english language showings – a ratio of about 2:1 for french showings. This is kind of ridiculous given the prevalence of english visitors, and supported by the fact that the english shows are consistently sold out. Here’s an idea – offer closed captioning. How hard is that?

Beside the Biodome, the Planetarium looks like nothing special on the outside. Contrastingly, it’s nice, new, and sleek on the inside. There is an exhibition hall with interactive exhibits (ie. touch screens) explaining various topics, including: meteorites, the solar system, dark matter, etc. The exhibition is mainly geared towards kids.
The main attractions are the 30 – 45 mins «Double Feature» shows in the round projection theatres. As of today, there are two double features available: 1. Tempo/​Vertigo, and 2. Dark Universe/​Aurorae.
I saw the second option. DARK UNIVERSE WAS CRAAAY AMAZING. The images are projected onto the round dome of a ceiling, and there is, I believe, surround sound and 3D images. The planetarium provides large beanbags for you to lie down on, which allows you to look into the ‘sky’ in the dome without craning your neck. It was like viewing the universe from the window of a spaceship. I’m not gonna lie — I got a little motion sickness during the part where we zoomed in close to a supernova. The second feature, Aurorae, was alright. I thought it was a nice addition to the Dark Universe feature, but could’ve done without it.
I strongly recommend purchasing tickets online before visiting. We showed up on a Monday (granted, during winter break) around 2pm and the show we wanted to see («Dark Universe/​Aurorae») was already sold out. We ended up buying tickets for another day and returning. The Planetarium is a great place to spend 2 hours during a day with bad weather.

I think, going to the Planetarium would be worthwhile if you make a package deal out of the whole Olympic garden experience. So doing the Biodome and the Insectarium with the Botanical gardens will give your trip to the Planetarium more variety and something different to do.
Just sitting back and relaxing on the nice and comfy beanbags was a great way to just hang out and look at the stars and planets. It was very relaxing. The other show was pretty educational too.
You get about 30 minutes in between the two shows. Just enough to look at the exhibits. But you would have better time spent on your iPhone browsing the internet… yes they have free wi-​fi so no need for roaming if you’re from out of town.

Situé en plein coeur du Parc Olympique, avec les autres installations «Espace pour la vie», on le reconnaît de loin, architecture moderne avec ses 2 cônes, gros contraste avec l’ancien Planétarium Dow au centre-​ville. Lorsqu’on y rentre, on réalise la nouveauté des lieux, le bel aménagement et la grandeur de l’espace, la place de l’aluminium (commandité par Rio Tinto Alcan), le bois qui recouvre un pan de mur avec originalité, l’ancien projecteur du Planétarium Dow, la section interactive avec ses quelques météorites, le nouveau Planétarium possède aussi une boutique et une cantine. Malheureusement, dû à sa popularité, ouvert depuis 1 semaine (6 avril 2013), toutes les représentations visuelles dans les salles étaient déjà complètes jusqu’à en fin de soirée. Je suggère fortement d’acheter en avance vos billets, si vous aussi vous né voulez pas faire demi-​tour sans assister aux représentations. J’achète en ligne mon billet en ligne et j’y retourne dès que possible. WiFi gratuit. Bonne visite !

I was incredibly disappointed with the Aurora screening in the Milky Way Theatre. The missed opportunity to discuss Aboriginal Peoples’ long histories of aurora interpretations was borderline offensive. There is a scene where a group of boys pass a soccer ball back and forth, and this is briefly compared to aboriginal legends of gods playing soccer with a skull. Such a tragic comparison to a rich and beautiful history. The filmography of auroras is shot in Yellow Knife, and the Milky Way theatres projection system does a wonderful job of displaying it. The percussion used throughout the presentation is irksome. The host and presenter we had for the show in English was tiresome and annoying. A very unfortunate production, for something that could be so simply beautiful.