Rock Creek Park Planetarium252

The Rock Creek Park Planetarium, next door to the Nature Center, serves as an astronomy laboratory, allowing visitors to study the sky under ideal conditions.

With a dome-shaped ceiling designed to reflect light, the planetarium can duplicate the motion of the stars and planets as they might be observed from any point on Earth using a Spitz planetarium projector. The majority of Rock Creek's planetarium programs show the night sky as it appears in the Washington, DC area for the specific date and time of the program. The projector can also be accelerated to allow visitors to witness phenomena which take months, years, or even centuries to occur. Programs are usually 45-60 minutes in length.

The planetarium holds regular shows on Saturdays and Sundays at 1pm for children four and older (four to seven year olds must be accompanied by an adult) and at 4pm for children seven and older. The show for the younger children concentrates on the identification of major constellations and the movement of the heavenly bodies through the night sky. The later show is divided into a study of the sky as it will appear that night and an in-depth astronomy presentation. On Wednesday afternoons year-round, there is an afterschool show at 4pm.

Free tickets for the planetarium shows can be picked up at the information desk in the Nature Center.

Exploring the Sky is an informal program that for nearly fifty years has offered monthly opportunities for anyone in the Washington area to see the stars and planets through telescopes from a location within the District of Columbia. Sessions are held in Rock Creek Park once a month on Saturday night from April through November, in the field south of the intersection of Military and Glover Roads, near the Nature Center.