History And Significance Of Birla Planetarium In Calcutta

The M. P. Birla Planetarium began operating as an educational, scientific, and research institution on September 29, 1962, and was officially inaugurated on July 2, 1963.

The inaugural session was done by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. This was the second significant Planetarium to be built in a Commonwealth country, with London's Planetarium opening some few years before Kolkata's.

M. P. Birla was the propelling force behind the establishment of the M. P. Birla Planetarium. The Planetarium, from its very beginning, has developed and made available to the people and students more than 300 astronomical projects, who were dealing with different parts of astronomy, astrophysics, celestial mechanics, space science, history of astronomy as well as mythology about stars and planets.

A sequence of graded school programmes for children of all ages has also been held at the Planetarium. A Complimentary Evening Course in Astronomy has been offered by this school almost since its inception. The planetarium has been holding free evening astronomy classes, which have become fairly popular throughout people from all walks of life, that was an essential historical feature or trivia about the planetarium. The course lasts ten months and is held once a week.

The 7th International Planetarium Directors' Congress was held at the M. P. Birla Planetarium in 1980. A number of planetarium directors from around the world addressed the conference and actively agreed to participate in the discussions.

However, the lab established an autonomous system for performing special elements and graphics during a planetarium presentation in 1993, after two years of work. Their control systems were upgraded on a regular basis at our in-house facilities. Another feature that distinguishes the M. P. Birla Planetarium is the practise of giving live lectures throughout the shows, allowing the general public and school students to communicate with authorities on the subject.