Corvus Planetarium · the late show
Late Light
Lights out at 22:00. Then fifty-five minutes in the dome, from the Moon to the oldest light there is.
Thursday to Saturday, 22:00 and 23:30. 55 minutes.
Under the torch the sky becomes a star chart of Orion, Taurus and Canis Major. Sirius is 8.6 light-years away, Aldebaran about 65, and the Pleiades about 440, so their light left in the late 1500s.
The journey: from the dome to the oldest light
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22:00 · Lights out
Your seat in the dome
The doors close, the room goes dark, and the projector turns the ceiling into the night above the city. Then we leave.
Distance: zero
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Stop 1
The Moon
384,400 km away on average. The craters you can see are impact scars, some of them billions of years old.
Light takes 1.3 seconds
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Stop 2
The Sun
Its light takes about 8 minutes 20 seconds to reach us. The Sun you see is always a little in the past.
149.6 million km
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Stop 3
Jupiter
The Great Red Spot is a storm wider than Earth. People have watched it for more than 150 years.
33 to 54 light-minutes, by season
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Stop 4
Saturn
Its rings are mostly water ice, and in places they are only about 10 metres thick.
About 70 to 90 light-minutes
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Stop 5
Voyager 1
Launched in 1977, it is the farthest thing people have ever built. Its radio signals now take almost a day to reach Earth.
Almost one light-day
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Stop 6
Proxima Centauri
The nearest star to the Sun. A small red dwarf, too faint to see without a telescope.
4.2 light-years
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Stop 7
The Orion Nebula
A cloud where new stars are forming. On a clear night you can see it with your own eyes, a smudge in Orion's sword.
About 1,340 light-years
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Stop 8
The centre of the Milky Way
At the middle of our galaxy sits Sagittarius A*, a black hole about four million times the mass of the Sun.
About 26,000 light-years
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Stop 9
Andromeda
The nearest large galaxy. On a dark night it is the farthest thing most people can see without a telescope.
2.5 million light-years
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Last stop
The oldest light
The afterglow of the early universe, set free about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. It reaches us from every direction.
About 13.8 billion years
Then the lights come up
That was 55 minutes. Come and sit under it.
Pick your night
Late Light · Friday · 22:00
Week of 5 Oct
Tickets
Ages 12 and up. Concession is for students, over-65s and carers.
Choose seats
Pick 2 seats
Swipe the map to see the whole dome.
Visit the dome
late@corvus.space
Corvus Planetarium, 4 Observatory Road. The late show runs Thursday to Saturday. For a birthday, a class or a whole team, ask about a group night.
| Day | Building | Late show |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Closed | None |
| Tuesday | 10:00-18:00 | None |
| Wednesday | 10:00-18:00 | None |
| Thursday | 10:00-23:00 | 22:00 |
| Friday | 10:00-00:30 | 22:00, 23:30 |
| Saturday | 10:00-00:30 | 22:00, 23:30 |
| Sunday | 10:00-17:00 | None |
Times are local. The dome doors close when the lights go out, so come ten minutes early. Latecomers move to the next show.