McLaughlin Planetarium, Former planetarium at Queen's Park, Toronto, Canada

The McLaughlin Planetarium was a planetarium building south of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, not an observatory. Its layered concrete dome rose 25.3 metres, with a separate perforated aluminium projection dome 23 metres across. The Theatre of the Stars seated 340 people and housed a Zeiss projector with 85 slide and video projectors.

Proposals for a Toronto planetarium date to 1944, with serious planning from 1962. Colonel R. Samuel McLaughlin donated $2 million for construction and $1.15 million as an endowment; the University of Toronto gave land beside the Royal Ontario Museum. Designed by Allward and Gouinlock with Stone and Webster Canada, it opened on October 26, 1968, after delays, and closed on November 5, 1995, following provincial budget cuts.

The facility contained an Astrocentre with hands-on exhibits, astronomical globes, and interactive displays that educated visitors about space and celestial phenomena.

The building no longer stands: demolition of the McLaughlin Planetarium began in April 2026, after the University of Toronto bought the site from the ROM in 2009. Visitors to Queen's Park can no longer see the white dome or the concrete wall with its vertical glass entrance. Records of the planetarium are held in university and museum archives.

During the 1980s the facility added laser light shows synchronized with music, which brought new audiences to astronomy presentations. This technical innovation turned traditional star shows into spectacles that appealed beyond dedicated astronomy enthusiasts.