Pittcon Planetarium
Planetarium Lessons + Presentations
STARHOPPING: Learn about the sun, planets, stars and constellations. This is our most popular lesson.
OUR SOLAR SYSTEM: Learn details about our Sun, planets, Earth, orbits, asteroid belt. View our solar system from 500M and 1B miles away from our Sun and close up discussion of each planet.
THE HELIOSPHERE: Learn about/discuss our heliosphere, which protect us as our solar system travels through our galaxy. Lesson contains a 23 minute movie shown inside dome.
Teacher Guidelines
- The Pittcon Planetarium is no cost to you. Our show typically this involves two presenters.
- We bring planetarium, setup (~1hr), run presentations, tear down ~(30 min).
- We can accommodate up to 300 students/presentation day. We will only come in exceptional instances for less than 100 kids.
- The presentations are for 30-45 minutes in length.
- The planetarium will accommodate up to 40 students per presentation.
- A schedule should be sent, if you would like different presentations for different classes and/or grade levels. The schedule should note the grade level for each time period.
- A teacher must accompany each group of students in the planetarium.
- The room, in which the planetarium will be inflated, must have a ceiling height of at least 20 feet. An auditorium stage or gym works best for the presentations.
- Set-up takes about an hour, so those presenting will need to be admitted to the building before the first presentation to allow for this to occur.
- School name, address, and directions should be given.
- In case of an emergency or problem, a direct telephone number (i.e. cell #) of a contact person is required.
Our Process
- Planetarium dates are reserved on first come first served basis, assuming above criteria are met, and we have an opening.
- We acknowledge receipt of presentation requests via e-mail and indicate the availability of your proposed date(s).
- When an open date is agreed upon, We will issue a HOLD (of the date) for the requester.
- At least one month in advance of agreed upon presentation date(s), we match up presenters from our Pittcon Planetarium Committee.
- Once presenters are matched to the show date, We re-confirm the presentation and communicate the presenter information to the requestor.
- We reserve the right to cancel presentations in the event of the following:
– An equipment failure (we only have one planetarium)
– Inability to present (i.e. illness, severe weather, or other event impacting availability of presenters).
Thus far, incidents like this have been rare, but sometimes things happen that are beyond our control.