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The Planetarium is a domed multimedia theatre designed to recreate the magic of the night sky. Visitors to the Planetarium become intrepid astronomical explorers as they embark on a voyage of discovery. They can explore the night sky as seen from anywhere on Earth, or journey far into space to visit the planets, stars, and beyond.

The heart of the Planetarium is the Zeiss Model Vs Star Projector. This precision opto-mechanical machine contains 154 projectors that work together to create an amazingly realistic night sky containing more than 9,000 stars, the Milky Way, the sun, moon, and planets. The projector was manufactured by the Carl Zeiss Optical Company of Oberkochen in the former West Germany. It cost $125,000 Cdn in 1967. To replace the projector today would cost over $2 million.

In addition to the Zeiss projector, there are more than 200 auxiliary projectors that add to the overall experience. These projectors include video and computer data projectors, which project computer graphics or the latest images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the wraparound panoramas and all-sky effects that are used to set the scene or location for a particular show, as well as special effects and incidental slides that illustrate some aspect of a particular show. With the aid of these auxiliary projectors, the audience can fly past the rings of Saturn or tour the volcanoes of Mars using the latest computer animation sequences from various space agencies and special effects production companies. These elements add motion and realism to the programming that was unachievable only a few years ago.