Recording of 'Celebrating 60 years of the Melbourne Planetarium - Australia’s oldest operating planetarium' webinar

Original GOTO Model M-1, opto-mechanical star projector, with an audience attending the Planetarium around 1970 (Credit: Museums Victoria).

A webinar from the Astronomical Society of Australia's History of Australian Astronomy Chapter (HAAC), in collaboration with the Australasian Planetarium Society (APS) was held on Wednesday 22 April 2026, 3.30pm – 4.30pm AEST (UTC+10).

The good news is that we now have a recording of the 3 talks.

Recording link here

Nick Lomb (HAAC Chair) opened the meeting with an acknowledgement of country and introduced each speaker:

• Martin George (International Planetarium Society) TOPIC: General history of planetariums, including IPS and APS

• Martin Bush (The University of Melbourne) TOPIC : Challenges of establishing a planetarium in Melbourne - the H.V. McKay Planetarium

• Tanya Hill (Museums Victoria) TOPIC: Scienceworks years – growth of technology

Abstract:

The Melbourne Planetarium - Australia’s oldest operating planetarium – celebrated its 60^th birthday at the end of 2025. The present planetarium at Scienceworks continues the legacy of its predecessor, Melbourne’s H. V. McKay Planetarium, which opened on 2 December 1965, at a time when interest in astronomy and space exploration was rapidly taking off. Last year also marked the 100^th anniversary of the modern planetarium, with the first public planetarium session taking place at the Deutsches Museum, Munich on 7 May 1925. Join our planetarium experts, as they detail the development of the planetarium industry around the world and specifically within Australasia, the challenges of establishing the H. V. McKay Planetarium and the technological advances that underpin the Melbourne Planetarium today.