Planetarium Nights August 2021

Overview

There's nothing like watching a film at the planetarium, but it's something most of us don't do all that often. Daytime sessions cater to school groups, and the Melbourne International Film Festival's full-dome program only comes around once a year. Thankfully, Scienceworks' late-night series changes that.

Every Friday evening through August, once the planetarium's usual working day is done, adults can have some after-hours fun in its impressive space. That means sitting in the reclining chairs, looking up at the 16-metre domed ceiling, listening to the 7.1 surround sound system and soaking in the best the full-dome video projection system has to offer.

In celebration of National Science Week, this month's Friday night program will be taking a deep-dive under the sea, with a curation of short films centred around our oceans. The 7.30pm screening is set to feature an exploration of WA's Ningaloo Reef, a global-scale look at ocean currents for Clockwork Ocean and the latest edition of the ever-popular What's In The Sky Tonight. And at 9pm, you can catch a screening of Coral, offering an immersive glimpse at some of the underwater ecosystems most threatened by climate change. Making things even better is the fact that the whole thing is boozy, so you can grab a drink from the bar, take it into the auditorium and sip while you watch.