Mars, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, the Big Dipper, and the moon – all swirl overhead as daylight turns to darkness to support the outer space illuminations.

The overhead dome acts as a movie screen and a door to the heavens for viewing your favorite planets and constellations.

The Georgia College Planetarium can transform a celestial trip exploring the last frontier into an everyday reality with its new simulated planetarium.

“The planetarium is a fantastic tool to show how the night sky moves during the course of the day, and how the appearance of the night sky changes according to the latitude of the observer,” said Dr. Agnes Kim, assistant professor of physics at Georgia College. “While it does not replace actual night time observations with a telescope, it is the next best thing to bring astronomy to a wide audience.”

Nestled snugly into a corner of Georgia College Natural History Museum in Herty Hall on the Georgia College campus, the planetarium can seat about 20 students comfortably for the overhead shows.

The planetarium highlights space telescope observations – the basic features of the sky, each season and the more famous features, said Dr. Donovan L. Domingue, associate professor of physics at Georgia College.

“We show the constellations on the dome, the water in the solar system and the exploration of Mars,” said Domingue whose research interests include galaxy interactions, dust in galaxies and star formation.

Students can watch a simulation of the sunrise and sunset over Milledgeville and the alignment of the stars and planets.

“And we can even physically change location, such as travel to the North Pole and see what the night sky does up there,” Kim said.

Georgia College uses the planetarium for astronomy labs for students to carry out real astronomical observations on a simulated by realistic sky, Kim said.

“And we are not at the mercy of the seasons, daytime or weather,” she said.

Funded through the E.J. Grassmann Trust, student technology fees and the departments of chemistry and physics, the planetarium has been two years in the making.

Now, the planetarium is open to local students and groups interested in taking a relaxing trip through the galaxy.

The Planetarium is adjacent to the Georgia College Natural History Museum on the ground level of Herty Hall on the corner of West Montgomery and North Wilkinson streets.

School groups can make arrangements to visit the planetarium.

And teachers can build lesson plans around the planetarium events.

“We can have groups of children from nearby school come during their regular school time on a field trip,” Kim said, “and show them the night sky and the planets.”