Carmo Planetarium, Planetarium in Parque do Carmo, São Paulo, Brazil.
The Carmo Planetarium is a facility in eastern São Paulo housed under a copper dome where astronomical shows take place. Inside the 20-meter dome, around 230 visitors can recline in comfortable seats to watch presentations about the sky.
Plans for a second planetarium date to the 1980s, when the Ibirapuera planetarium was overcrowded, with about 1,100 schools served yearly and over 800 on a waiting list. The Carmo building opened on 30 November 2005, closed in 2007 due to infiltration and structural problems, and reopened on 8 May 2016 after R$1.2 million in repairs.
The planetarium is run by UMAPAZ, the city's Open University of the Environment and Culture of Peace, and since its 2016 reopening has hosted a branch of the astrophysics school based at the Ibirapuera planetarium. Weekday mornings are reserved for pre-booked school groups, while the public attends free sessions on weekends and holidays.
The building also contains a classroom space, reading areas, and exhibition rooms for additional learning. On a rear terrace, two telescopes are available for observation if conditions allow.
The Universarium VIII projector was bought for R$5 million, while the building itself cost R$11 million. The dome is clad in copper plates joined with double-loop seams and screwed to fibreglass ribs over a steel ring-and-arc frame. A polystyrene layer between the fibreglass and the copper limits heat absorption.
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