City: Chesapeake, VA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (757) 547-0153

Address: 312 Cedar Rd.

Description: This school-operated theater captures a child’s imagination. The planetarium is located in the Chesapeake Municipal Center and is open to the public on Thurs nights at 8 p.m. It was the first planetarium built by a public school system in Virginia and opened nearly 50 years ago. More than 50,000 people visit annually. There’s a traditional domed Sky Theater with a Spitz sky projector that reproduces the daily and annual motions of the earth so you can peek back or forward to see what things looked like or will be. The programs change regularly. Reservations are required. Children under six usually aren’t ready to stay quiet long enough for such a show, so they recommend you not bring them, but if yours is particularly quiet, give it a shot. The public programs are provided as a free service of the Chesapeake Public School System.