The Planetarium is an educational & entertainment resource for schools, colleges, community groups and the general public. Weekdays provide the main focus for activities for schools and colleges, while evenings offer an opportunity for community groups to enjoy shows. Public shows are held every two weeks on a Friday evening with occassional shows on a Sunday afternoon during the summer months.

Schools are catered for across all areas of the science curriculum and at all levels. School parties can also book a Planetarium show with a live internet telescope session, where one of a number of telescopes from places like Chile, Australia, the Canary Islands, mainland USA and Hawaii can be controlled directly from the Planetarium, and pictures of the sky are captured on computer from these far away places.

Public shows are wide-ranging and include a tour of what can be seen in the sky in any one month, shows on the Big Bang theory, features on the sun and our neighbouring planets, the legends behind the constellations, views of the sky from different parts of the world and much more! Advance bookings are essential for all educational and community group visits and are recommended for public shows, as shows are very popular and sell out fast.

There are many posters and a couple of information points to browse inside the building. There is a leaflet rack with many astronomy related leaflets as well as other Stockton Council countryside material. We also have a Solar Observing Station and a touch-panel astronomy information box that gives audio information on astrnomical objects in our solar system. All you have to do to use the audio information box is pop on the headphones and press the picture corresponding to the object that you are interested in inorder to hear an information track.

Together with the Observatory, the Planetarium forms the local focus for any astronomical events. It is run by Stockton Borough Council with the assistance of both the Cleveland and Darlington Astronomical Society (CaDAS) and the Durham Astronomical Society (DAS). Members of the societies are often on hand to share their wealth of knowledge with visitors. Winter public shows are held on Friday evenings to coincide with ‘public observing night’ where, if the skies are clear, the Observatory is opened and astronomical society members bring along their own telescopes for you to view the wonders of the heavens first hand and up-close.