20 minutes
Discover the science of flight through the eyes of a young girl and her grandfather as they explore how birds, kites, planes and models fly.
Our full-dome planetarium transports visitors across space and time in a variety of amazing adventures. Voyage to the furthest reaches of our galaxy to examine black holes, stars, and planets; travel back in time to investigate ancient civilizations; or visit the deepest parts of our oceans and explore an active coral reef!
The Space Theater shows are included in general admission and DHDC membership. Seating capacity is 90 people per showing.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, & Sunday
11:00 am – Flight Adventures
1:00 pm – Voyage to Distant Worlds
3:00 pm – Cosmology
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
11:00 am – Two Small Pieces of Glass
1:00 pm – Mayan Archeoastronomy
3:00 pm – Out There
Flight Adventures
Voyage to Distant Worlds
38 minutes
A tour of the planets in our solar system. Discover facts you never knew about our neighboring worlds.
Cosmology
35 minutes
How did the universe begin, and how is it evolving? Explore some of the big questions in this original show produced by the Casper Planetarium and narrated by Michael Stevens of Vsauce.
Two Small Pieces of Glass
23 minutes
A visually stunning chronicle of the history of the telescope from the time of Galileo, its profound impact upon the science of astronomy, and how both shape the way we view ourselves in the midst of an infinite universe.
Mayan Archaeoastronomy
20 minutes
In a feast of colours and sounds, Mayan Archaeoastronomy: Observers of the Universe makes a tour of 6 Mayan temples: San Gervasio, Chichen Itzá, Uxmal, Edzná, Palenque and Bonampak where the spectator dives into a Mayan world of knowledge about the importance of the orientations of its temples in relation to the movement of some stars like the Sun, the Moon and Venus.
Out There
30 minutes
The story of how human curiosity has driven us to look outwards to discover and explore new and distance worlds.
Past Showings
Secret of the Cardboard Rocket
40 minutes
Adventure through the solar system in the Cardboard Rocket! Travel with two children and their navigator, the talking astronomy book. Visit the Sun, the planets, the Moon, and more.
*The narration track was edited in 2007 for the reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet. References to “smallest planet,” “ninth planet,” and “last planet” were removed, and Pluto is simply termed a planet in view of it being a new category of planet.
The Hot and Energetic Universe
30 minutes
The planetarium documentary “The Hot and Energetic Universe” presents with the use of immersive visualizations and real images of the achievements of modern astronomy, the most advanced terrestrial and orbital observatories, the basic principles of electromagnetic radiation, and the natural phenomena related to high-energy astrophysics. High-energy astrophysics plays a key role in understanding the universe. These radiations reveal the processes in the hot and violent universe. High-energy astrophysics probes hot gas in clusters of galaxies, the most massive objects in the universe. It also probes hot gas accreting around supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies. Finally, high-energy radiation provides important information about our own galaxy, neutron stars, supernova remnants, and stars like our Sun, which emit copious amounts of high-energy radiation. Europe plays a leading role in high-energy astrophysics research. The XMM-Newton and the Integral missions are leading the exploration of the X-ray and gamma-ray universe. ESA‘s mission ATHENA, to be launched in 2028, will carry the most sensitive X-ray telescope ever, and it will be the flagship of all high X-ray missions.
From Earth to the Universe
30 minutes
The night sky, both beautiful and mysterious, has been the subject of campfire stories, ancient myths and awe for as long as there have been people. A desire to comprehend the Universe may well be humanity’s oldest shared intellectual experience. Yet only recently have we truly begun to grasp our place in the vast cosmos. This stunning, 30-minute voyage through space and time conveys, through sparkling sights and sounds, the Universe revealed to us by science. Viewers can revel in the splendor of the worlds in the Solar System and our scorching Sun. From Earth to the Universe takes the audience out to the colorful birthplaces and burial grounds of stars, and still further out beyond the Milky Way to the unimaginable immensity of a myriad galaxies. Along the way, the audience will learn about the history of astronomy, the invention of the telescope, and today’s giant telescopes that allow us to probe ever deeper into the Universe.
Saturn the Ring World
22 minutes
Saturn is the true “Lord of the Rings”. After nearly seven years in transit, the two-story Cassini-Huygens spacecraft began orbiting Saturn on July 1, 2004. Cassini continues to explore Saturn and its moons during its extended mission, while the Huygens probe had landed on the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. The Cassini Saturn encounter began with a flyby of Saturn’s farthest moon, Phoebe. See Saturn up close and all-around-you inside our dome theater.
SATURN THE RING WORLD is narrated by Star Trek’s John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox on ENTERPRISE) and was produced by the Houston Museum of Natural Science and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Phantom of the Universe – The Hunt for Dark Matter
28 minutes
Phantom of the Universe: a free planetarium show that showcases the exploration of dark matter, from the Big Bang to galaxies to the Large Hadron Collider.
The show reveals the first hints of its existence through the eyes of Fritz Zwicky, the scientist who coined the term “dark matter.” It describes the astral choreography witnessed by Vera Rubin in the Andromeda galaxy and then plummets deep underground to see the most sensitive dark matter detector on Earth, housed in a former gold mine.
From there, it journeys across space and time to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, speeding alongside particles before they collide in visually stunning explosions of light and sound, while learning how scientists around the world are collaborating to track down the constituents of dark matter.
Sunstruck
20 minutes
Travel back to the beginning of time and experience the birth of the Sun. Discover how it came to support life, how it threatens life as we know it, and how its energy will one day fade away.
Zula Patrol
30 minutes
A research mission gone awry, an interplanetary villain and a tour of the solar system are all featured in this animated full-dome film based on the award-winning PBS television series. Viewers join the Zula Patrol as they gather samples of weather for scientist Multo’s research. As the Zula Patrol attempt to stop Dark Truder’s nefarious plan to become ruler of the universe, visitors will explore and compare the types of weather found on each planet in our solar system and discover the elements which combine to create weather.
Expedition Reef
35 minutes
Embark on a journey into the hidden world of coral reefs in this all-digital planetarium show exploring some of our planet’s most biodiverse—and critically threatened—ecosystems. Dive into the heart of the Academy’s iconic Philippine coral reef tank as thousands of tropical fish flutter by. Travel the globe to explore coral reefs teeming with life and learn how scientists are racing to develop sustainable solutions to protect these vitally important ecosystems for the future. Along the way, discover how corals live, breathe, and reproduce, supporting a quarter of all marine life on Earth and providing critical benefits to human communities in our ever-changing world.
The Dark Matter Mystery
38 minutes
What keeps Galaxies together? What are the building blocks of the Universe? What makes the Universe look the way it looks today? Researchers all around the world try to answer these questions. We know today that approximately a quarter of the Universe is filled with a mysterious glue: Dark Matter. We know that it is out there. But we have no idea what it is made out of.
This fulldome planetarium show takes you on the biggest quest of contemporary astrophysics. You will see why we know that Dark Matter exists, and how this search is one of the most challenging and exciting searches science has to offer. Join the scientists on their hunt for Dark Matter with experiments in space and deep underground. Will they be able to solve the Dark Matter Mystery?