The Shanghai Astronomy Museum, the world’s largest planetarium, opened to the public on Saturday. The public will be allowed on Sunday. The museum is located in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lingang Special Are. It covers an area of around 58600 square meters.
The Shanghai Science and Technology Museum has a branch here (SSTM). The museum features slicing architecture, theme-based exhibitions, immersive technologies, and precious collections.
The museum’s main building, has a circular skylight, an inverted spherical dome. The dome theatre looks like a super bowl of astronomy instruments from the air. A bright spot on the ground changes when sunlight shines through the circular skylight. It is specially designed which will be a perfect circle on the Summer Solstice.
The day with the longest hours of sunshine in the Northern Hemisphere will make it look phenomenal. The skylight is designed with mechanisms similar to sundials. Xihe Tower and Wangshu Tower are named after ancient Chinese mythology’s symbols of the sun and moon, respectively. They stand as satellites of the main structure.
During the day, visitors can view high-definition photos of sunspots and solar flares through the educational adaptive-optics solar telescope in the Xihe Tower.
Visitors to the Wangshu Tower may enjoy views of the moon, planets, and celestial bodies in deep space at night thanks to a double-focus, one-meter telescope, the largest in China in terms of aperture.
The Shanghai Astronomy Museum’s opening is a pivotal point in the city’s attempts to promote science. Shanghai now has museums dedicated to nature, modern technology, and astronomy, according to Wang Lianhua, the SSTM’s director.
Visitors to the main structure can tour three themed exhibitions, including Home, Cosmos, and Odyssey, to get a full grasp of the cosmos. Many more facilities are dedicated to issues including the history of Chinese astronomy study, Mars exploration, and scientific rising popularity for children.
In the dome theatre, an 8K-resolution spherical projection system is placed with an advanced laser performance system. A stage performance system has also been built. This will allow guests to see shows about the newest advances in astronomy.
The museum’s exhibitions comprise over 120 collections of antiquities. It includes works by Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler, as well as around 70 meteorites from the moon, Mars, and Vesta.
Interactive exhibitions account for more than half of the museum’s more than 300 exhibits. Visitors can learn about astronomy and science by interacting with technologies like data analysis, augmented reality, virtual reality, and biometrics.
