Welcome


The KCMSD Planetarium is located at the southeast corner of Southwest High School at 6512 Wornall Road. Under a 10-meter perforated aluminum dome is a Spitz 512 Planetarium projector capable of displaying the visible planets, the Sun, and our Moon in their correct current positions for essentially any date or time. It projects an accurate star field of more than 1900 stars in correct colors and apparent brightness for both the northern and southern hemispheres, including the Milky Way, and is capable of showing the day or night sky and its apparent or real motions for essentially any time past or future - but more realistically it will accurately portray the sky as we see it today. Additional projectors allow for the display of the celestial coordinate system, meridians, and the ecliptic overlaid on the star field. All of which, when used in Planetarium lab lessons, can provide support and reinforcement for concepts related to rotation, revolution, orbital motions of the planets, apparent motions on or near the ecliptic, the effects of Earth precession and so on.