London Planetarium

The London Planetarium building is located on Marylebone Road, London. It is adjacent to and owned by Madame Tussauds. It previously housed a planetarium, offering shows related to space and astronomy. In 2006, it was closed as a separate attraction and became part of Madame Tussauds. Since 2010, the building that previously housed the London Planetarium has been home to the Marvel Super Heroes 4D attraction.

The former Planetarium, showing Tussaud's branding

History
Closeup of a lens-bearing sphere of a Zeiss Mark IV planetarium projector

The London Planetarium was opened by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh[1] on 19 March 1958,[2] with public presentations commencing on 20 March.[3] It occupied the site of a cinema destroyed in the Second World War[4] and seated an audience of around 330 beneath a horizontal dome approximately 18 m/60 ft (18.29) in diameter. For its first five decades of operation, an optomechanical star projector, a Zeiss projector Mark IV,[5] offered the audience a show based on a view of the night sky seen from Earth. Between 1977 and 1990, evening laser performances called 'Laserium' (see Ivan Dryer) were held.

In 1995, Digistar II, was installed in a £4.5 million redevelopment, allowing monochromatic 3D journeys through space and many other kinds of shows to be presented. The Planetarium was used to teach students from University College London's astronomy department the complexity of the Celestial coordinate system, allowing for practical lectures delivered by a team of planetarium and UCL staff.

The Planetarium in 2006

In 2004, the Planetarium was upgraded to a full-color Digistar 3 system that allows both pre-rendered and real-time shows to transport the audience in an immersive full-dome video environment to distant realms of time and space.

In January 2006, freelance journalist Paul Sutherland broke the news in the London Evening Standard that the London Planetarium was being renamed the Auditorium and would replace astronomical presentations with entertainment shows. Madame Tussauds subsequently announced that in July 2006, the Auditorium would open with a show by Aardman Animations about celebrities.

Directors

Dr. Henry C. King served as Scientific Director before opening and managing the McLaughlin Planetarium in Toronto, Canada.

John Ebdon, author, broadcaster, and Grecophile, was director of the London Planetarium (b. 1923 – d. 2005).[6]

References
  1. British Pathe news coverage. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  2. Lieut.-Commander R.B. Michell, "The London Planetarium" on p. 323 Record on Cambridge Core website. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  3. The Observatory, Vol. 78, p. 91(1958). Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  4. Madame Tussauds. "Key Dates - The History of Madame Tussauds" [D] (PDF). Madame Tussauds. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
  5. "London Planetarium Guide" (PDF).
  6. "John Ebdon". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
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