The Beijing Planetrium was built in 1957 and contains a planetarium, an exhibition hall, a lecture hall and an astronomical observatory. The planetarium, with its cupola measuring 25 meters in diameter, is the main focus of interest of the entire complex. At regular intervals, 45-minute presentations take the visitor on a virtual tour of the heavens made possible by projectors installed in the center of the hall which faithfully reproduce an image of the starry sky on the inside of the cupola.


The Beijing Planetarium Cupola and its Zeiss Star Projector as Chinese postage stamps (issued in 1958.)

The planetarium's new 18 m diameter inclined, domed auditorium is now among the most modern in the world thanks to new equipment installed in 2003 from Silicon Graphics and Carl Zeiss.