UNA Planetarium and Observatory

10/10/2026

I got to be on TV yesterday! We are anxious to get reopened and show off the new equipment.

A lot of cool things are in the works at UNA, one of those being the Planetarium.

09/24/2026

Our Starlab programs continue while we anxiously wait for the renovations to be complete. Last week I was on the road Thursday and Friday with our portable planetarium both Alabama and Mississippi. We were at Thrasher High school in Booneville, Mississippi and Hatton elementary in Town Creek, Alabama.

08/27/2026

We will be doing an observing session tonight for the lunar eclipse. The partial phase begins at about 9:30pm, reaches maximum at 11:12pm and ends at 12:51am. We will have a telescope and binoculars available but you can watch the event without any equipment.

08/12/2026

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-perseid-meteor-shower/

In this video, EarthSky founder Deborah Byrd shares 9 easy meteor-watching tips that can help you spot more shooting stars. Whether you’re a first-time skywatcher or a seasoned observer, these simple techniques can make this year’s Perseid meteor shower unforgettable. Watch in the player above, ...

07/06/2026

We partnered with the Shoals Astronomy Club to do a tabling event at First Friday's in downtown Florence this past Friday. We talked to about 75 people and gave out Astronomy materials.

05/05/2026

We will now be pausing our public programs until August. The planetarium will be undergoing a major upgrade, replacing our projector, sound system, repairing our floors and installing new cove lighting,. This will take until mid-August and so we will be shut down for campus programs until then. We are still running our Starlab portable planetarium programs which is available for bookings. We will try to keep everyone up to date with photos as the project progresses. See you in August!

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05/05/2026

The planetarium now has two butterfly gardens! We have Verbena, Milkweed, Butterfly W**d and Liatris Spicata, all of which help out butterflies. Many thanks to the UNA grounds crew for doing this.

04/22/2026

To conserve power, engineers at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory have turned off an instrument on Voyager 1 – but the science continues!

Voyager 1 has two remaining science instruments – one that listens to plasma waves and one that measures magnetic fields. Learn more: science.nasa.gov/blogs/voyager

This follows a plan established by the Voyager science and engineering teams years ago which determined the order instruments would be shut off to ensure the mission can continue conducting unique science.

Of the 10 identical sets of instruments that each spacecraft carries, Voyager 1 has two instruments remaining and Voyager 2 has three. See which instruments are still operating: go.nasa.gov/4mDuI0K

04/22/2026

Three Sky Arches over Snowy Alps (APOD: 2026 Apr 21)
Image Credit & Copyright: Angel F*x
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260421.html

Explanation: Why are there three arches across the sky instead of two? Last month, after being dropped off by a helicopter at a high mountain peak in the Alps near the Swiss Italian border, an adventurous astrophotographer expected two arches of our Milky Way galaxy to be visible during the night. These were the inner arch looking in toward the center of our galaxy on the left, visible just before sunrise, and the outer arch on the right visible just after sunset. But there were three arches. The surprised astrophotographer soon realized that the sky was so dark that an entire arc of faint zodiacal light was also noticeable -- sunlight scattered by inner Solar System dust. And it artfully connected the two Milky Way arches! The next morning a helicopter picked the astrophotographer back up, and after 40 hours of processing and combining that night's images, the featured triple-arch 360-degree panorama resulted.

https://www.instagram.com/angelfux

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=260421

04/22/2026

Celebrate our spaceship Earth this Thursday and Friday with the beautiful film ‘Birth of Planet Earth’. It’s your last chance to catch a regular season planetarium show before we close for renovations until January 2027. We hope to see you there.

Tickets are a suggested donation of $5 for adults, $3 for children 12 and under. All proceeds go directly to our planetarium’s Delta State Foundation account.