Sendai Space Museum, Science museum and observatory in Satsumasendai, Japan

The Sendai Space Museum is a municipal science exhibition hall and observatory in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Its low building has a gray tiled facade with a wide, deeply recessed red arch entrance; white characters reading せんだいい and 宇宙館 flank a round blue-and-green emblem above the arch. Behind the facade rises a white curved-roof section with dark rectangular windows, and a small domed structure stands to the right of the entrance.

Satsumasendai City planned the facility from 1995, when its basic concept was drawn up. Design and geological surveys followed in 1996, and construction with the installation of interior fittings ran through 1997. It opened as a municipal science exhibition hall and observatory in Nagatoshi-machi, Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture.

At the exhibition entrance, an image of the Babylonian god Marduk, linked to ancient Mesopotamia as the origin of the constellations, guides visitors through the facility. Clear nights bring nightly observation sessions, and amateur astronomers are regularly invited to join events such as occultations. The museum posts their observations and photographs online alongside its own.

The museum is open from 10:00 to 21:00, with last entry at 20:30, and closes every Monday. An elevator connects all floors, so wheelchair users can reach the rooftop telescope. Observation sessions are held every clear night. By car it is about 20 minutes, roughly 8 km, from JR Sendai Station on the Kagoshima Main Line, and there are 50 parking spaces.

The observatory houses a telescope with a large aperture that can reveal faint stars during night sessions. On special evenings, visitors can look through the instrument themselves and explore the sky.