Stars in Your Eyes: The Ghana Planetarium

This is a photo of the Eagle Nebula in 2014. Credit: NASA

Time commitment: 2 hours
Price: 5 cedis per adult
Venue: Ghana Planetarium (behind Christ the King)

Beau and I are quite fascinated by space; there are so many interesting things being written and produced in the science-fiction television and literary world that we really enjoy. However, even in our own reality, there are many amazing new discoveries and theories about space being published by scientists all over the world.

To feed our curiosity we have had our hearts set on visiting the Ghanaian Planetarium Science Center for ages. However, this has been complicated due to a myriad of reasons: the planetarium only has events open to the general public about once a month, usually on a Saturday evening. To get information on the exact date it will fall on, you first have to contact sarahatmasters@gmail.com to sign up for the listserve and hope your schedule is open that evening. In this rainy season, your next step is to send a quick prayer to the heavens for clear enough skies to enable a telescope viewing.

If all the cards fall in your favor then you are in for a treat!

According to the website and the emails I have received, the usual order of things is:

• 5:30pm: An initial general discussion on an astronomy topic. (They seem to always have a theme for the day.) 
• 6pm: A planetarium show (no idea what this entails, but surprises are fun!)
• 6:30pm-7:30pm: A telescope viewing (if there are no clouds blocking the view)

Another big plus is it is very decently priced at 5 cedis per adult and 3 cedis for children and students. You do not even need to make reservations ahead of time. Although this is a trickier date to schedule and successfully accomplish, it seems well worth the effort.

Let us know if you have been to this event before and how it went! We will post a review once we attend.

A

Directions: The Planetarium Science Center is located on the road behind Christ the King School.  It is on the same compound as Quality Distance Learning and Office Automation Systems (QDL). Follows the signs for QDL and you should see giraffes in front of the planetarium.