London Planetarium

The building known as the London Planetarium is in Marylebone Road, London. It is adjacent to Madame Tussauds and is owned by the same company. A famous London landmark, it was once a notable tourist attraction, housing a planetarium, which offered shows relating to space and astronomy.

It closed in 2006 as a separate attraction and is now part of Madame Tussauds. From 2010 forward, the building that once housed the London Planetarium houses the Marvel Superheroes 4D attraction.

The only planetarium in London is now the Peter Harrison Planetarium in Greenwich, south east London.

Announced in 1955, by Mr. Jacob Ruttle chairman and managing director of Madame Tussauds, it was reported that the "Board of Trade consent has been obtained for importing the necessary projecting equipment, at a cost of about £50,000, from Western Germany."

In 1958 the London Planetarium was opened by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on 19 March, with public presentations commencing on the 20th. It occupied the site of an old cinema that was destroyed in the Second World War, and seated an audience of around 330 beneath a horizontal dome approximately 18 m in diameter. For its first five decades of operation, an opto-mechanical star projector offered the audience a show based on a view of the night sky as seen from earth. Between 1977 and 1990, evening laser performances called 'Laserium' (see Ivan Dryer) were held.

In 1995, one of the world's first digital planetarium systems, Digistar II (created by Evans & Sutherland) was installed in a £4.5 million redevelopment, allowing monochromatic 3D journeys through space and many other kinds of show to be presented. The planetarium was used to teach students from University College London's astronomy department the complexity of the Celestial coordinate system, allowing for practical lectures delivered by a team of planetarium and UCL staff.

...
Wikipedia