Join the West Virginia Wesleyan College Planetarium for a series of monthly shows that take attendees on a journey through space and a tour of the night sky from campus afterwards.

The first show will be Saturday, June 7 at 8 p.m. with “Messengers of Time and Space” about using various telescopes to track astronomical events, such as star explosions and collisions, over short periods of time like hours and days.

After the video, attendees will take a tour of the night sky. The show will last about 1 hour with telescope observing of the moon and Mars afterwards, weather permitting.

The planetarium is on the second floor of Christopher Hall. Seating is first-come, first-serve. Doors open a half hour before the show. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for students and seniors, and free for those under 18. The ticket sales for the public shows go entirely towards facility maintenance and video costs to provide free shows for school and kids’ groups.

The planetarium will open for public shows at 8 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month. Saturday, July 5 will be Einstein’s Gravity Playlist and Saturday, Aug. 2 will be Max Goes to the Moon.

The 40-seat Planetarium was a key part of the design of the Christopher Hall of Science and was completed in December 1968. Originally, it had a state-of-the-art Spitz A3P prime projector and was intended for both teaching and public shows.

“In the fall of 2017, with a generous donation from the Naylor Family Trust Fund, we upgraded to a fully digital projection system that now allows us to fly up close to planets and display beautiful images of deep sky objects,” said Dr. Tracey DeLaney, associate professor and WVWC Planetarium director. “Of llate we have only been using the planetarium for teaching and school shows, but we are now excited to finally reopen for public shows.”