Earth Day All Around Natick - 2025
Free Public Planetarium Shows at NESciTech

Free Shows

We offer free IN-HOUSE planetarium shows for the public on special occasions. Watch this page and our Events Calendar for them.

NOTE: We can bring the planetarium to your school - see the Planetarium Outreach page.

Student Preparation

The 4-meter diameter inflatable dome is in a room with many astronomy and space science artifacts, meteorites, and NASA memorabilia. Students will sit on the floor on small yoga mats, and one or two small beach chairs can be added for adults. Students must be at least 8 years old and not afraid of the dark or enclosed spaces. Students must have good balance to step through the vestibule doorways and be well behaved and quiet when inside.

Dome Capacity

Assuming a class with 1 teacher, there is room for approximately 12 elementary school children, 10 middle school children, or 8 high-schoolers or adults. The dome has a double door vestibule for easy access while standing up.

Dome Equipment

The dome is kept inflated by a large box fan, so fresh air is always flowing through. An HD video projector, amplified speakers, and a computer, make up the projection equipment. The dome is made of a fire retardant material and easily flipped up and over the group for emergency exit.

Shows

The Earth Day show is "Losing the Dark," a 7-minute program about how you can help curb light pollution. We will follow that with a 12-minute live show about the night sky, constellations, and the Milky Way. You will appreciate how much more we could see if we could just "turn off" the light pollution.

We also have a variety of multimedia shows about planets, asteroids, Galileo, eclipses, NASA missions, telescopes, etc. (See complete list of shows here.) All shows are geared toward grades 4 and up. We occasionally provide planetarium shows free for the public for special events such as Earth Day All Around Natick, World Ocean Week, Astronomy Day, Mass STEM Week, and Amateur Radio Field Day.

Additional Options

When you visit our planetarium, we often also show other educational items if time allows, such as meteorites, a dinosaur egg, pieces of NASA space gear, or something pertinent to the topic you request.

In warmer spring, summer, fall seasons we also offer free public telescope nights for the public. See the Public Telescope Nights page for more information.

If you have any questions about the planetarium nights, bringing groups, or other activities at NE SciTech, please call 508-720-4179.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: How comfortable is it sitting on the floor? A: The floor is covered with a 3/4" thick foam mat and additional yoga mats make the surface fairly comfortable. With more students, everyone will sit upright, but with fewer students, you can lie down and "look up at the stars."

Q: How comfortable for adults?  A: We can place up to 6 small, low-to-the-ground beach chairs in the dome for adults who want them.

Q: What else can we do during our visit?  A: We often open the NE Sci-Tech space for visitors to tour, visit the space science classroom, and try out the planetary scales, a Mars robot arm, touch a large meteorite, 3-D space display, amateur radio room, and more.

Q: What is the difference between multi-media and live shows?  A: We have many professionally made shows that have sound, music, and narration that cover various topics in space science. The live show is done by the astronomer using a star planetarium software to take you on a tour of the night sky, constellations, and planets. We can show what is up currently in the sky, or take a tour through time to the past or future.