Cosmosdyssee Portable Planetarium

TSN is delighted to announce that the Portable Planetarium is available to loan from the TSN Kit Club all year round. It is available for schools in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to borrow. Call us to discuss your requirements)

The Portable Planetarium 2020-21

• the loan period is for 1 week
• it will be charged at £100, If your school is a silver/gold/team member of the Teacher Scientist Network
• it will be charged at £200, for non-members
• This fee includes compulsory training (if teachers have not been trained in the last 3 years) and the week long loan.

It is essential that schools who have not borrowed the planetarium before complete the short training session. This will be held as a twilight event at the John Innes Centre and will cover setting up, running and dismantling the equipment. Any number of teachers from each school can attend.

The Cosmodyssee offers a wide range of advanced features. It can project the entire Northern and Southern celestial sphere, show a realistic version of the Milky Way, the phases of the moon and images of the planets. A planetarium allows astronomical concepts to be demonstrated in a 3D environment that significantly aids spatial understanding. The inflatable dome is 3 metres high with a diameter of 5 metres and is large enough to accommodate a group of 20 high-school students (and more primary aged pupils).

The photograph below shows the 3 components of the Cosmodyssee:the blue bag (aprox 120 x 60 x 50 cm) contains the inflatable dome, the small brown box (50 x 50 x 25cm)contains the fan to inflate the dome and the large brown box (75 x 62 x 50cm) contains the controls and spheres of the planetarium.

For more information please contact us

The 3 main components of the Cosmodyssee - blue bag (=dome), large box (heavy - control unit), smaller box (fan to inflate the dome)

The 3 components packed into the back of a hatchback car,

The inflated dome and entrance doorway

The control panel and spheres of the planetarium in place inside the dome. Note there is no floor to the dome, you may wish to use school mats for the children to sit on.

• Click below to watch a short video clip, hosted on TSN's YouTube channel, showing the planetarium being set up during a training session at the John Innes Centre
  
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