Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An apparatus or model representing the solar system.
  • noun An optical device for projecting images of celestial bodies and other astronomical phenomena onto the inner surface of a hemispherical dome.
  • noun A building or room containing a planetarium, with seats for an audience.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An astronomical machine which, by the movement of its parts, represents the motions and orbits of the planets. See orrery.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An orrery. See orrery.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A display museum in which images of stars and other astronomical phenomena are projected onto a domed ceiling.
  • noun An orrery.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an apparatus or model for representing the solar systems
  • noun an optical device for projecting images of celestial bodies and other astronomical phenomena onto the inner surface of a hemispherical dome
  • noun a building housing an instrument for projecting the positions of the planets onto a domed ceiling

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin, formed from planet +‎ -arium.

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Examples

  • So you wonder who actually wrote that bit, when a planetarium is an excellent example of exciting science education for students, yet it's dismissed so casually more than once.

    Archive 2008-10-10 Nicole 2008

  • (In homage to Nehru's interest in astronomy, the city's planetarium is next door.) 12: 10 A.M. INDIRA GANDHI

    City Walk: New Delhi John Krich 2010

  • I'm sorry, did he call a planetarium "foolishness"?

    Bad Astronomy 2008

  • The Gottorp Globe, the world’s first modern planetarium, is completed in Germany.

    Boing Boing 2007

  • Mason's trip to the planetarium was a big success.

    Day in the Life of an Idiot lyda222 2009

  • Outside the planetarium were a number of science exhibits, including an environmental-themed multimedia presentation.

    Thursday, April 23 – The Bleat. 2009

  • Now celebrating its 75th anniversary, the planetarium was the first built in the Western hemisphere, and the first with a Zeiss, an optical projection device creating the illusion of a night sky.

    CNN Transcript Oct 22, 2004 2004

  • Now, Hodge reports, the school has added a number of classrooms, an audiovisual room, computer lab, and even a planetarium, which is named for his wife, Marlene, a longtime champion of Project Nino who died in 2004.

    Home 2010

  • Of course our planetarium is a fraction of the cost the structure itself is very expensive needless to say the projector.

    digg.com: Stories / Popular 2008

  • Of course our planetarium is a fraction of the cost the structure itself is very expensive needless to say the projector.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz 2008

Comments

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  • There is a fabulous planetarium in the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York:

    January 23, 2008