A Visit to Morehead Planetarium and Science Center

From earth to the universe. It was a great show. I enjoyed learning a little bit about the stars.

My son loved the show and the planetarium. He thought it was cool. He learned about the solar system, and he had some Aha moments.

My daughter loved the stars and she kept asking me where are the aliens? Yes, my sister and I laughed but then I thought about it and and I asked myself “Are we alone in this vast universe?” Let’s think about it.

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center is located on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

First opened in 1949, the planetarium was used to train Gemini and Apollo program astronauts in celestial navigation.^[1] Until the late 1990s, it contained one of the largest working Copernican orreries in the world. The facility was donated to the university by alumnus John Motley Morehead III who invested more than $3 million in the facility.^{[2] –}^Wikipedia

The first astronaut to train at Morehead, in March 1964, was Neil Armstrong. Armstrong visited again only months before the 1969 launch of Apollo 11, spending a total of 20 days at Morehead over 11 training sessions, more than any other astronaut. Astronauts commented that the “large dome” was “highly realistic”, calling the facility “superb”.^[5]

Morehead’s expanded mission still involves being a gateway to the stars, but further includes being a gateway to all the sciences, exposing audiences to fields like genetics, virtual reality, concussion research, and nanotechnology.

In May 2003, the Morehead Center made the first step towards fulfilling its new mission with the debut of the film “DNA: The Secret of Life,” which the Center produced in collaboration with U.K.-based filmmakers, Windfall Films, and James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. https://moreheadplanetarium.org/about-morehead/our-history/history-timeline/