Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium

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The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium is located on the grounds of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens in the suburb of Toowong, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Planetarium was officially opened on 24 May 1978.The Planetarium is named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, governor of the colony of New South Wales (1821 - 1825) and well known Scottish astronomer who established the first significant observatory at Parramatta, Australia, in 1822 for mapping the southern skies. The Planetarium is located about 5km from the Central Business District, and is administered by the Brisbane City Council.The Planetarium features the 12.5m diameter Cosmic Skydome (hemispherical planetarium theatre) with a recently upgraded, state of the art Sky-Skan digital dome projection system, console and refurbished seats for a maximum concentric seating capacity of 133. An observatory contains a permanently mounted Zeiss 15cm refractor and a Meade 25.4cm "Go To" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Extensive space exploration and astronomy displays in the Planetarium's Foyer and Gallery include the 1969 Moon landing with a replica of Neil Armstrong's space suit and numerous models of spacecraft and astronomical instruments. A mini-theatre usually features a regularly updated Space Telescope Science Institute web feed.