Welcome to the Northland Astronomical Society's New Project.

At the beginning of last year the Northland Astronomical Society had an opportunity to buy a Planetarium from the Carter Observatory in Wellington.

A planetarium is a theatre with a dome ceiling, similar to the iMax theatre. In our case the dome is six meters in diameter. It is an educational tool for learning about the universe and our place in it. You can project the night sky for anytime, anywhere in the world. You can zoom in on Planets, Nebula, and Galaxies and show the constellations. You can actually run it as a movie theatre for any kind of entertainment and it has major educational benefits to learn about the night sky in a controlled environment where you are not constrained by the vagaries of the weather.

As there is no other planetaria north of Auckland the club jumped at the opportunity of purchasing the one from the Carter Observatory. So the fundraising began and, to date, we have raised about $100,000 dollars. This has enabled us to buy the projector, dome, chairs and to build a 9m x 9m, six metre high shed which was completed in December last year. We are hoping to have the planetarium up and running by about March 2012 and to achieve this we need to raise at least another $50.000.

Thanks To Our Sponsors

We would like to gratefully acknowledge the contributions and support of our sponsors. What we have achieved so far would not have been possible without them.

Pub Charity
The Trusts Charitable Foundation
Oxford Trust
Whangarei South Rotary Club
The Lion Foundation
A K Franks Charitable Trust
And many private donations.