The National Planetarium (Planetarium Negara) is conveniently located in Kuala Lumpur’s Lake Gardens, the green lung in the heart of the city.
The building, which was opened to the public in 1993 and has been cleverly designed to resemble a blue-domed mosque, sits on a small hill between the Bird Park and the National Museum.
To be honest the exhibits inside are not that impressive but there are a few highlights.
There is a mock-up of the interior of the International Space Station showing sleeping and toilet arrangements. Quite interesting!
The space suit of the first Malaysian astronaut is on display together with examples of the ready meal packs he took into space containing Malaysian delights such as Nasi Lemak.
There is supposed to be an observatory and telescope in the tower which looks like a minaret but it was either closed during this particular visit or was somehow missed.
In the grounds of the National Planetarium are some replicas of ancient Chinese and Indian observatories (the latter being a scaled down version of the Jai Singh Observatory in Delhi) and also a replica of Stonehenge or, in this case, Fibre-Glass Henge.
The main highlight of the visit was undoubtedly the Omnimax-style film projected on the interior roof of the dome.
Seated on comfortable reclining cinema chairs, the huge screen gives a panoramic viewing effect that enhances the content of the film.
Visitors will get to see “Dawn of the Space Age”, an interesting history of space exploration and the rivalry between the USA and USSR.
There are currently four different films screened every day. The latest screening schedule is below.
Entrance Charges
Entrance to the Exhibition Gallery is FREE.
The film show costs are:
Adults (Age 13 and above): RM12 (MyKad RM6)
Children (Ages 2-12): RM8 (MyKad RM4)
Opening Hours
9.30am-4.30pm daily. Closed on Mondays.
The film shows screen on the hour, every hour. Currently the schedule is as follows:
10am: “Perfect Little Planet”
11am: “Cosmic Collisions”
12pm: “Astronaut”
1pm: “We are Astronomers”
2pm: “Perfect Little Planet”
3pm: “Cosmic Collisions”
4pm: “Astronaut”
No shows at 1pm and 2pm on Fridays (Friday Prayers).
National Planetarium
53 Jalan Perdana, 50480 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03 22735484
This article first appeared in malaysia-traveller.com