Zeiss Planetarium Bochum, Planetarium in Bochum, Germany.

The Zeiss Planetarium Bochum is a 20-meter dome fitted with eleven video projectors and a central star projector for displaying astronomical phenomena. The combination of equipment allows both accurate reproductions of the night sky and digital space exploration simulations on the interior dome surface.

The planetarium was built between 1962 and 1964 to a design by Karl-Heinz Schwarz, head of the city building office, and opened on 6 November 1964 as the first large planetarium in post-war Germany. It was initiated by Heinz Kaminski, founder of the Bochum observatory, and initially formed one of three departments of that observatory. The city of Bochum remains the owner. It has been a listed building since 2005.

The Zeiss Planetarium Bochum is run by the city of Bochum, and its programme mixes scientific lectures and children's shows with artistic events such as concerts and musical programmes under the dome. In 1995 the Freundeskreis Planetarium e. V. was founded to support the house financially and ideally. Around the projection hall a circular gallery holds permanent and changing exhibitions.

The dome seats 251 people, with rows of chairs that fold back toward the rear around the central projector. A surrounding gallery corridor holds permanent and changing exhibitions, and an annex building houses the planetarium's other facilities. The building stands on a grassy slope near the Ruhrstadion at the northeastern edge of Bochum's city centre, on Castroper Straße.

The projection setup merges classical celestial mechanics with digital technologies to create accurate representations of real astronomical events and space exploration. This hybrid approach lets visitors see both the stars as they appear in the actual night sky and future cosmic missions or events.