Planétarium de Reims, Scientific planetarium in Reims, France.
Planétarium de Reims is a planetarium, not an observatory, housed since 2013 in an elliptical building by architect Jean-Paul Bonnemaisson at 49, rue du Général-de-Gaulle. Its curved facade of translucent glass panels carries a silver-grey ribbed dome with a thin vertical slit; the dome is 8 metres across and seats 48. Inside, a Zeiss ZKP4 projector with optical fibres and three high-definition DLP projectors cast the sky onto the dome.
The planetarium opened on 1 March 1980 in the former Jesuit college on Place Museux, making it the first planetarium in the French provinces after Paris. Its 6-metre dome seated 40 and used a Zeiss ZKP2 projector. It closed there on 6 January 2013 and reopened on 7 September 2013 at 49, rue du Général-de-Gaulle, in a new elliptical building by architect Jean-Paul Bonnemaisson after 18 months of work costing 3.4 million euros.
The dome seats 48 people plus two places for visitors with reduced mobility, and the whole venue is accessible to people with hearing or visual impairments; since 2015, descriptive explanations cover the 7,000 stars of the sky for the visually impaired. Reach it by tram or via Franchet d'Esperey SNCF station.
The projection system includes a database showing how the sky looked at specific moments in history, such as the night sky of 1789. Visitors can step back in time and witness celestial configurations from different eras.
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