Stardome Observatory

[Psygnal]

Went to the Stardome Observatory (One Tree Hill, Auckland) today, and took the nieces. It's a rather cool place, with its nifty 360 degree cinema and so forth... but there are a few things which are really letting it down.

I'd happily go to the place once a month or so... but over the last year we've been about 5 times, and in that time, we've seen two shows, and five identical talks about Exoplanets from a powerpoint presentation.

We probably won't go again unless there's a specific thing we want to see. I mean, how hard is it to come up with a different powerpoint presentation for God's sake? Exoplanets are interesting and all, but you can only watch their cheezy "Alf-in-a-Hawaian-Shirt" joke once or twice before it starts to get a little old.

A little more interaction for the kids wouldn't go amiss either. The ball from the black-hole display was missing, and the trackball for the interactive movie display was broken... so no joy on either of those.

Good luck getting anywhere near the Neptune Atmosphere presentation, because everyone loves a hollow table full of shampoo that you can spin... but even if you do, that only lasts a few minutes.

The meteorites are on a table that is far too high for children to see.

In short... while I'm happy to go there for my own benefit, they don't change their shows enough for me to go more than once a year from this point on... and the kids just don't get enough out of it.

It's a shame, because it has the potential to be about the coolest damn place in Auckland to go to of a quiet evening.

Psyg'

[Bongo]

Have you told the Stardome this?

I'm sure they have a comments form somewhere, and if I was them I'd welcome any feedback that targets specific things.

Bongo

[Psygnal]

I filled in something on their website. I haven't had any kind of response, but then if anyone's reading the feedback, it'll probably be the website developers, and they'll be going "Meh... delete."

Psyg'