Celebrating 60 years of the Melbourne Planetarium - Free Webinar discussing Australia’s oldest operating planetarium

Celebrating 60 years of the Melbourne Planetarium - Australia’s oldest operating planetarium. A webinar from the Astronomical Society of Australia's History of Australian Astronomy Chapter (HAAC), in collaboration with the Australasian Planetarium Society.

Date: 3.30pm – 4.30pm, Wednesday 22 April AEST.

Speakers: Martin George (HIVE Planetarium, Ulverstone), Martin Bush (University of Melbourne) and Tanya Hill (Melbourne Planetarium, Museums Victoria)

Abstract:

The Melbourne Planetarium - Australia’s oldest operating planetarium – celebrated its 60th birthday in 2025. The present planetarium at Scienceworks continues the legacy of its predecessor, Melbourne’s H. V. McKay Planetarium, which opened on 2 December 1965, at a time when interest in astronomy and space exploration was rapidly taking off. Last year also marked the 100th anniversary of the modern planetarium, with the first public planetarium session taking place at the Deutsches Museum, Munich on 7 May 1925. Join our planetarium experts, as they detail the development of the planetarium industry around the world and specifically within Australasia, the challenges of establishing the H. V. McKay Planetarium and the technological advances that underpin the Melbourne Planetarium today. 

Title image credit: Original GOTO Model M-1, opto-mechanical star projector, with an audience attending the Planetarium around 1970.