Public Shows By popular demand we are holding an online telescope workshop hosted by our telescope gurus and our volunteers.
If you need help buying a telescope especially with the festive season almost upon us, or if you have a telescope but need help setting it up or if you have taken up astronomy during lockdown parts 1 & 2 but don't know which telescope to buy, then is workshop is for you. There will be a Q&A session after the workshop ends.

Details of show:
Fri 4th Dec, 2020
At: Virtual Wynyard Planetarium and Observatory - via Zoom
Log-in time: 19:15
Start time: 19:30
Price: £5.00 (+ 50p booking fee)
Once show sells out, our Zoom host & Co-ordinator will then send you an invite so that you can log into the Zoom call, we recommend that if you are new to Zoom to log in for 7pm, so you can get used to the set up of Zoom.

Suggested Donations welcome:

In these unusual and unique times, we have all felt the impact on our everyday lives and routine. Wynyard Planetarium and Observatory is no exception. The facility is run by a charity and is normally dependent for its running and development costs on income from selling tickets for regular shows for the public, occassional shows for Scouts, Guides and schools plus small cash donations from our visitors. With us having no paid staff this income entirely goes back into maintaining and improving the Planetarium and the Observatory, giving future visitors an "out of this world experience".

We made the decision to close the doors to the public in early March before the general lockdown was announced as the nature of our operation means that we could not otherwise have ensured the health and safety of our volunteers and visitors.

We have been looking at ways to continue our mission online and have now successfully run pilot Virtual Star Shows via the Zoom Video Conferencing platform both for some members of the public and a Scout group. Until it is possible for us to again welcome visitor in person to the planetarium and observatory we will soon be running regular online Virtual Star Shows and Astronomy Workshops. The Star Shows will be presenter led, include some of the same content as our regular planetarium shows and have live Question and Answer sessions. There will also be the opportunity for a virtual visit to the planetarium and observatory and, if the sky is clear, we may even link a telescope up to the Zoom session. The Workshops will be more interactive sessions on a specific practical topic with one or more of our experienced volunteers.

To make sure that those attending our online events get the best experience we will be limiting the numbers for each event. We will do this via our regular booking platform. There will be a small nominal charge per connection for these online shows and workshops to help cover our costs.

In addition when booking an event we are asking for you help and support to allow future visitors to have an "out of this world experience" by making an additional voluntary donation. By making a donation you will be helping support a facility unique to the Tees Valley for everybody interested in astronomy, physics and technology, as well as those who will become our future STEM professionals.

Thank you.

Booking