UTA Planetarium is a terrific place to learn about the Texas Night Sky, or to watch one of their other features! Our favorite is Spacepark 360 Infinity!
Check out My Mommy Tips for making the most of your visit.
Know Before You Go
Arrive with plenty of time to park, buy tickets and use the restrooms. They don’t allow late arrivals or reentry once the show starts.
Public parking is in the parking garage near the planetarium.
It’s chilly inside the planetarium.
Films are shown on a huge overhead screen, so there are no bad seats, although we prefer the middle.
The seats tilt back slightly.
No food or drinks are allowed. Leave your soda and candy at home.
Preshow
Before each film, they do aTexas Sky presentation of stars, planets, constellations and even galaxies in sky!
Before or after the show you can look at some of their astronomy displays and browse their small gift shop selections.
There is also a fun photo prop!
Spacepark 360 Infinity
The planetarium offers some wonderful space-related shows, like Secrets of the Cardboard Rocket and Big Bird’s One World One Sky. Our favorite is Spacepark 360 Infinity!
The show takes you to nine rides on different astronomical locations. Music accompanies you as the movie screen turns, spins and drops you into different alien topographies. Avoiding space boulders is just part of the fun! The best part for a scaredy cat like me is that you can just close your eyes or look away when the room is spinning a little too much!
You don’t even realize how much you are actually LEARNING until the show is over! To me, that’s the best kind of fun!
After our virtual trip to outer space, it was nice to be back on Earth! We walked around the campus, glad our planet is filled with green grass, blue skies and gravity!
March 12, 2016 is Museum Day Live and the Planetarium is FREE to the public!
Things to do in Arlington
For a list of other things to do in Arlington, click HERE.
Planetariums in Texas
Texas is home to many planetariums, and most of them offer movies to the public. Most of the time, the are space related or educational movies, but often they will run family movies, especially during the summer and holidays. Here’s a list of Planetariums in Texas, you may be surprised how many are near you.
Angelo State University (San Angelo) Enjoy a different movie each Thursday evening.
Burke Baker Planetarium (Houston) Housed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the planetarium offers daily shows. NASA used the planetariums domed, starred skies to train astronauts to recognize the stars.
Center for the Arts and Sciences (Clute) Weekly shows for the public, check website for dates. Also home to the Brazosport Astronomy Club.
Don Harrington Discovery Center (Amarillo) The Space Theatre offers daily shows Tue. – Fri.
Gene Roddenberry Planetarium (El Paso) Named after the Star Trek creator and native El Pasoan, the Planetarium occasionally offers movies to the public.
Hudnall Planetarium (Tyler) This planetarium, located at Tyler Junior College, offers shows and special events.
John Parker Planetarium (Gainesville) Part of the North Central Texas College Campus, the planetarium offers public showings.
Mayborn Planetarium (Killeen) Daily public shows as well as special events and scouting events.
Moody Planetarium (Lubbock) Daily shows for the public Wed – Sun.
Morgan Jones Planetarium (Abilene) Owned by the Abilene ISD, it offers movies to the public. Visit their site for a list of upcoming shows.
Museum of the Southwest (Midland) The Mirian Blakemore Planetarium is open Tue. – Sat. for shows.
Navarro Cook Center Planetarium (Corsicana) Enjoy public showings on the weekend, including The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket and The Cowboy Astronomer.
Robert Wollman Planetarium (Corpus Christi) The planetarium, located at Richard King High School and offers shows to the public on Tuesday evenings.
Scobee Planetarium and Challenger Center (San Antonio) This state of the art planetarium and learning center is scheduled to re-open Fall 2013 on the San Antonio College Campus.
SHSU Planetarium (Huntsville) The Sam Houston State University Planetarium offers shows to the public.
Stephen F. Austin Planetarium (Nacogdoches) Enjoy a movie each Friday night at 7pm.
Tarleton State University Planetarium (Stephenville) Open to the public for special events during the year.
UTA Planetarium
700 Planetarium Place, Arlington
Click HERE to visit their website.
Keep Having Fun in the Texas Sun!
Michelle
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