The Reichert Planetarium is proud to offer award-winning shows with stunning, immersive visuals projected overhead on our 60-foot dome.
Our daytime planetarium shows are available Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday – please check the show schedule for each day below.
We offer additional evening planetarium shows on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm, and exciting laser shows on Friday and Saturday nights at 9:30 pm.
Daytime Planetarium Shows:
Adults: $22
Students with ID and Seniors: $18
Children 12 and under: $16
Members and Children under 2: free (excludes Library Memberships)
All daytime planetarium show tickets include general admission, which allows visitors to access the exhibits in the Vanderbilt Mansion, Marine Museum, and all of our grounds and gardens.
Tours of Mr. Vanderbilt’s living quarters within the mansion are an additional charge. For more information about our tours, please click here.
Evening Planetarium Shows:
Adults: $12
Students with ID and Seniors: $10
Children 12 and under: $8
Members, Children under 2: free (excludes Library Memberships)
The exhibits in the Vanderbilt Mansion, Marine Museum, and all of our grounds and gardens will be closed during evening hours.
Laser Shows:
All tickets: $20
Laser show tickets for members in the Senior, Student, Individual, Dual, and Family levels are 25% off. Tickets are free for members in the Associate, Supporter, and Director’s Circle levels. Excludes Library Memberships.
Haunted Skies
This popular planetarium production, created in-house by the staff of the Vanderbilt Reichert Planetarium, returns for the 2025 Halloween season!
Come along on a journey of exploration into the origins of this magnificent and often misunderstood holiday. We travel to the ancient past to uncover the origins of Halloween and give some insight as to why we still celebrate this autumn tradition today. Narration by Ray Adell.
Spine-tingling and certainly not for the faint of heart, this program echoes the spirit of the holiday in an enjoyable, intelligent, and often “frightening” planetarium production. Find out for yourself what lurks in the starry skies above.
Ages 8+
Haunted Skies
This popular planetarium production, created in-house by the staff of the Vanderbilt Reichert Planetarium, returns for the 2025 Halloween season!
Come along on a journey of exploration into the origins of this magnificent and often misunderstood holiday. We travel to the ancient past to uncover the origins of Halloween and give some insight as to why we still celebrate this autumn tradition today. Narration by Ray Adell.
Spine-tingling and certainly not for the faint of heart, this program echoes the spirit of the holiday in an enjoyable, intelligent, and often “frightening” planetarium production. Find out for yourself what lurks in the starry skies above.
Ages 8+
Long Island Skies
This LIVE presentation, developed by the Vanderbilt Planetarium staff, uses the star projector to its fullest capabilities. The program introduces the brilliant night sky that can be seen on Long Island from everyone’s backyard, including seasonal constellations, stars and deep-sky objects.
Recommended for ages 6+.
Join us for a stunning laser light display featuring songs from one of the most legendary rock artists of all time, Queen!
The setlist includes We Will Rock You, Another One Bites the Dust, Somebody to Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are the Champions, and more!
One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure
Big Bird, Elmo, and their new friend Hu Hu Zhu learn about stars, constellations, and the Moon by using their imagination to take a trip into space.
Recommended for ages 2-8.
Earth, Moon & Sun
This family show explores the relationship between the Earth, Moon and Sun with the help of Coyote, an amusing character adapted from Native American oral traditions, who has many misconceptions about Earth and its most familiar neighbors. Native American stories are used to help distinguish between myths and science.
Learn why the Sun rises and sets, and the basics of fusion and solar energy. Examine the Moon’s orbit, craters, phases and eclipses. The show also explores past and future space travel to the Moon and beyond. Produced by the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ages 7 +
Stars
Every star has a story. Some are as old as time, faint and almost forgotten. Journey to the furthest reaches of our galaxy and experience both the awesome beauty and destructive power of stars. Content includes stellar evolution, space exploration, the electromagnetic spectrum, and the history of astronomy.
The stunning animation highlighting astronauts, spacecraft, telescopes, nebulas, clusters, and more, was created by the talented team of the National Space Centre (Leicester, UK).
This dramatic program features the voice talent of Mark Hamill.
Night Sky, Live!
In this family-friendly LIVE program, one of our highly trained astronomy educators will take you on a tour of tonight’s night sky from right here in Centerport. Topics vary depending on the time of year, but may include seasonal constellations, visible planets, galaxies, nebulae, and more.
Recommended for ages 6+.
The Birth of the Solar System
Witness the dramatic collisions that shaped the planets and moons!
How did our solar system originate? What chain of events led to its creation? Just as detectives look for traces of evidence to solve a mystery, astronomers analyze the evidence that points to the formation of the Sun and planets. In particular, they study the influence that impacts and collisions had on the worlds of the solar system. The most dramatic evidence for this collisional history of solar system evolution are the impact craters found on almost all the bodies in the solar system, including Earth. These surface scars tell us the formation history of planets, moons, and rings was violent. Yet today, we live in a relatively stable solar system, made possible by the shattering collisions that shaped our worlds.
This program gives us a unique look at the formation of the solar system by tracing the role that collisions played throughout its history. Beginning with the condensation of the initial cloud of gas and cosmic dust, we explore the history of planetary formation and the mechanism of accretion that played an important role in shaping the worlds of the solar system.
Ages 7+
Incoming!
Asteroids and comets have collided with our planet throughout its history, changing the course of life on Earth and shaping the world we know today. Incoming! also gives audiences a closer look at the scientific advances that may allow us to find and track cosmic threats before they reach Earth. The show concludes with glowing nighttime views of Chile’s Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which, once completed, will survey the entire sky every few days, observing and detecting faint moving objects, including asteroids and other Near-Earth Objects.
Narrated by George Takei.
Ages 10+
Messengers of Time and Space
Messengers of Time and Space is a stunning visual and educational experience that leads you on a journey through the dynamic Universe during a night of observing at the International Gemini Observatory.
Gemini is working together with observatories (including the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory) that monitor the night sky for exciting astronomical events that change with time. Sometimes, light is not the only indicator of these short-term events.
Audiences will learn how information can reach us through other messengers like cosmic rays, elusive particles called neutrinos, and even gravitational waves rippling through the Universe.
Ages 9th – 12th grade
Night Sky, Live!
In this family-friendly LIVE program, one of our highly trained astronomy educators will take you on a tour of tonight’s night sky from right here in Centerport. Topics vary depending on the time of year, but may include seasonal constellations, visible planets, galaxies, nebulae, and more.
Recommended for ages 6+.
This show combines Journey’s dazzling guitar solos and melodies you can’t help but sing along to with brilliant laser light. Songs include Any Way You Want It, Don’t Stop Believin’, Wheel in the Sky, and more.
One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure
Big Bird, Elmo, and their new friend Hu Hu Zhu learn about stars, constellations, and the Moon by using their imagination to take a trip into space.
Recommended for ages 2-8.
The Little Star That Could
Little Star is an average yellow star in search for planets of his own to protect and warm. Along the way, he meets other stars, learns what makes each star special, and discovers that stars combine to form star clusters and galaxies. Eventually, Little Star finds his planets and is introduced to basic information about our Solar System.
Stars
Narrator Mark Hamill takes viewers on a journey to the furthest reaches of our galaxy to experience both the awesome beauty and destructive power of stars.
Recommended for ages 6+.
Night Sky, Live!
In this family-friendly LIVE program, one of our highly trained astronomy educators will take you on a tour of tonight’s night sky from right here in Centerport. Topics vary depending on the time of year, but may include seasonal constellations, visible planets, galaxies, nebulae, and more.
Recommended for ages 6+.
We Are Guardians
We are all connected. Come and find out how.
Join us on a journey into, under, and around the many ecosystems across our planet. Discover how each component fits together, and how the health of each part is vital to the health of Planet Earth. Find out how, with the help of satellites and scientific study, we can understand the links between human activities and climate change, and what we can do to work together to improve the health of our shared home.
This visually stunning show is an immersive science film that features beautiful animation and creative storytelling that viewers of all ages can enjoy together.
Ages 8+
Explore
This is a compelling story of skygazing, scientific discovery, and the wonders of exploration: past, present, and future.
Humanity has always had a fascination with the stars — from ancient stargazers and astrologers to modern-day astronauts and astronomers. This show begins with a look at how scholars and scientists throughout the ages used the sky as a calendar and clock to measure the passage of time. Their charts and star catalogs informed the breakthrough discoveries of Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, who in turn paved the way for space travel. In several beautiful scenes, the show demonstrates how today’s spacecrafts follow Kepler’s laws in stately maneuvers as they make their way from Earth to orbit and then — one day — on to other worlds.
Ages 12+