St Petersburg is now home to the biggest planetarium in the world. Its dome measures 37m in diameter, which makes the planetarium larger than its counterparts in Japan and the USA. Because of this, the St Petersburg giant may be included in the Guinness World Records book.
Officially called Planetarium №1, it is located not far from the historic city centre in a former building of the biggest gasholder in Russia, which was used for the lighting of St Petersburg's streets more than 100 years ago. The building dates from 1884 and today it is a cultural heritage attraction. The venue can host more than 500 people at a time.
Visitors to the new planetarium can look at the starry sky (the dome is served by 40 powerful projectors with a screen resolution of 100 million pixels) and see different galaxies and star systems, rotate the dome using the touchscreen tablets dotted around the space, visit the Museum of Space exhibits and the interactive hall equipped with virtual reality technology.
There are plans to open observatories, exhibition halls and an aircraft modelling club, as well as to organise educational classes and much more in the near future.
By Ksenia Elzes