Movie trailers

'Tycho to the Moon' is a show produced especially for the kids – shown on the Planetarium 360-degree full digital dome. Tycho is the dog that doesn't just howl at the moon...he goes there. Blast off on an amazing ride with Tycho and his friends, Ruby and Michael, on a great adventure in space. Learn about night and day, phases of the moon, space travel and the lunar surface. See what it’s like to play in zero gravity, watch meteors shoot across the night sky, witness earth from space and get a close up look at the sun.

Suitable for: ages 4-8

Movie duration: 20 minutes

Tycho, our favourite cheeky dog with a knack for getting into trouble, is finally blasting off to discover the red planet, Mars! We’ll learn all about the major features of Mars, including the ancient volcano Olympus Mons and the canyons of the Valles Marineris. Tycho is in search of water to fly his steam-powered space kennel back home. But how will he find water on Mars, when it looks so cold, dusty and dry? Luckily, he discovers a new friend, Oppy, who is all too eager to help. Oppy – the NASA rover, Opportunity – has lots of experience exploring Mars and hunting for water. She is thrilled to share her knowledge of the red planet with a fellow space explorer.

Suitable for: ages 5-8 

Movie duration: 27 minutes

Join showman extraordinaire ‘The Great Schiaparelli’ as he takes the audience on a death-defying space-time adventure within his wondrous Observatorium. From the sun-scorched surface of Mercury to the icy expanses of Pluto and beyond, prepare to be subjected to the myriad dangers and wonders of our Solar System, on a breathtaking tour that reveals just how precious our home planet really is. Be warned though, the Observatorium isn’t just for show. It will transport the audience right to the heart of some of the deadliest locations in our slice of the heavens. It’s going to take some fancy flying to get everyone back in one piece!

Suitable for: ages 5+ 

Movie duration: 25 minutes

Join Annie and Max and their robot friend as they fly into space to discover how the seasons work. They examine the apparent path of the Sun and the tilt of the Earth to find out about the day-night cycle and why it is different at different places on Earth and at different time of the year. They understand how the seasons are opposite in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and are caused by two factors, the tilt of the Earth and the path of the Earth around the Sun.

Suitable for: ages 7-10

Movie duration: 25 minutes

The exploration of space is the greatest endeavour that humankind has ever undertaken. What does it take to be part of this incredible journey? What does it take to become an astronaut? Experience a rocket launch from inside the body of an astronaut. Explore the amazing worlds of inner and outer space, from floating around the International Space Station to manoeuvring through microscopic regions of the human body. Discover the perils that lurk in space as we subject ‘Chad’, our test astronaut, to everything that space has to throw at him.

Suitable for: ages 8+

Movie duration: 23 minutes

Join National Geographic on a spectacular journey to witness the most beautiful, powerful and mysterious weather phenomena in the solar system. From a storm the size of a 100-megaton hydrogen bomb, to a 400-year-old hurricane, to a dust storm that could engulf entire planets. Audiences will fly through the thick atmosphere of Venus, encounter magnetic storms on the sun, liquid methane showers on Titan, and anticyclones whirling at hundreds of miles per hour on Jupiter. Packed with eye-popping visuals, amazing computer-generated imagery and cutting-edge science. After this whirlwind adventure, you'll be glad you live on Earth!

Suitable for: ages 8+ 

Movie duration: 20 minutes

Join National Geographic on a spectacular journey to witness the most beautiful, powerful and mysterious weather phenomena in the solar system. From a storm the size of a 100-megaton hydrogen bomb, to a 400-year-old hurricane, to a dust storm that could engulf entire planets. Audiences will fly through the thick atmosphere of Venus, encounter magnetic storms on the sun, liquid methane showers on Titan, and anticyclones whirling at hundreds of miles per hour on Jupiter. Packed with eye-popping visuals, amazing computer-generated imagery and cutting-edge science. After this whirlwind adventure, you'll be glad you live on Earth!

Suitable for: ages 8+

Movie duration: 20 minutes

Imagine a place where time stands still and the known laws of physics don't apply. A place where reality as we know it breaks down. Welcome to the world of black holes. Narrated by Geoffrey Rush, this planetarium show brings to life all that is fascinating and extreme about black holes. What makes a black hole? How do we find them? Would you survive falling into one? No longer the stuff of science fiction, the discovery of black holes is a triumph of modern science. Follow their story from an extraordinary idea of the late 18th century to their unexpected detection almost 200 years later.

Suitable for: ages 10+

Movie duration: 25 minutes

A radical change from our peaceful night sky. Cosmic Collisions presents the spectacular result of gravity pulling together planets, stars and galaxies. Here are explosive encounters that ended the age of the dinosaurs and gave birth to new stars, but also created conditions essential for life on Earth like the Sun’s warmth and ocean waves. Cosmic Collisions provides an extraordinary view of these forces – constructive or catastrophic – that continue to affect our universe.

Suitable for: ages 10+ 

Movie duration: 23 minutes

Through an incredible visual presentation, this Planetarium show shares traditional and scientific knowledge telling of Australia’s epic story.

Audiences will be transported to four locations across the country: Girraween Lagoon on Larrakia and Wulna Country outside Darwin in the NT; Cloggs Cave on GunaiKurnai Country in Victoria’s East Gippsland region; Lake Mungo in NSW on the land of the Barkandji/Paakantyi, Ngiyampaa and Mutthi Mutthi people; and Jiigurru (Lizard Island) on the Great Barrier Reef, which is sacred to many, including the Dingaal community. At each location a story is told, blending modern archaeology and anthropology with traditional knowledge to create a beautiful shared narrative. 

The Earth Above: A Deep Time View of Australia’s Epic History is presented by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), produced by the Deakin MotionLab in collaboration with First Nations communities and UOW Science Space. 

Suitable for: ages 10+ 

Movie duration: 29 minutes

The Sun has shone on our world for four and half billion years. The light that warms our skin today has been felt by every person who has ever lived. It is our nearest star and our planet’s powerhouse, the source of the energy that drives our winds, our weather and all life. The passage of the Sun’s fiery disc across the sky – day by day, month by month – was the only way to keep track of time for countless past civilisations. Don’t be fooled by the terminology; although it is a typical dwarf star, the Sun consumes 600 million tons of hydrogen each second and is 500 times as massive as all the planets combined. Discover the secrets of our star in this Planetarium show and experience never-before-seen images of the Sun’s violent surface in immersive full dome format.

Suitable for: ages 10+ 

Movie duration: 25 minutes

Travel back to the beginning of time and experience the birth of the Sun. Discover how it came to support life, how it threatens life as we know it, and how its energy will one day fade away. A visually captivating experience and easy to understand dialogue makes it a great one for students.

Suitable for: ages 8+

Movie duration: 21 minutes

First steps on another world – The 50th Anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing. This full dome movie commemorates Apollo 11’s touchdown and exploration at Tranquillity Base on 20 July 1969. This remarkable event was a watershed in human history and a technological achievement of astounding proportions: the mission went to the Moon and back with less computing power than a modern smart phone. This brilliant documentary reveals the origins of Werner von Braun, the man who dreamed from age 16 of sending rockets into space, and how his infamous V1 and V2 missiles became the blueprint of NASA’s most famous rocket of all: the Saturn V.

Suitable for: ages 10+ 

Movie duration: 12 minutes

The Hot and Energetic Universe presents with the use of stunning, immersive visualisations and real images the achievements of modern astronomy, the most advanced terrestrial and orbital observatories, the basic principles electromagnetic radiation and the natural phenomena related to High Energy Astrophysics. High Energy Astrophysics plays a key role in understanding the universe.  These radiations reveal the processes in the hot and violent universe. High Energy Astrophysics probes hot gas in clusters of galaxies, which are the most massive objects in the universe. It also probes hot gas accreting around supermassive black holes in the centres of the galaxies. Finally, high energy radiation provides important information about our own galaxy, neutron stars, supernova remnants and stars like our Sun which emit copious amounts of high energy radiation.

Suitable for: ages 12+ 

Movie duration: 30 minutes

The night sky, both beautiful and mysterious, has inspired awe and been the subject of campfire stories, and ancient myths for as long as there have been people. A desire to comprehend the universe may well be humanity’s oldest shared intellectual experience. Yet only recently have we truly begun to grasp our place in the vast cosmos. To learn about this journey of celestial discovery, from the theories of the ancient Greek astronomers to today’s grandest telescopes, we invite you to experience From Earth to the Universe. This stunning, 30-minute voyage through space and time conveys, through sparkling sights and sounds, the universe as revealed to us by science.

Suitable for: ages 12+ 

Movie duration: 32 minutes

Follow the journey of a single photon as it is produced in a distant star, before travelling across the vast expanse of space to land on someone’s retina. This full-dome Planetarium show explores some of the fascinating processes of the cosmos, from astrophysics to the biology of the eye and brain. This show is narrated by astronomer and science communicator, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Suitable for: ages 12+ 

Movie duration: 26 minutes

Australian astronomers today are exploring the universe on a grand scale. But knowing what’s out there is just the first step. Putting the pieces together to unlock the mysteries of the universe is the ultimate goal. Discover the new astronomy being carried out under the breathtaking skies of the Australian outback. What will be learnt about our place amongst the stars?

Suitable for: ages 13+ 

Movie duration: 27 minutes

Phantom of the Universe is an exciting exploration of dark matter, from the Big Bang to its anticipated discovery at the Large Hadron Collider. Narrated by Tilda Swinton, this amazing story reveals the first hints of its existence. It describes the astral choreography witnessed by Vera Rubin in the Andromeda galaxy and then plummets deep underground to see the most sensitive dark matter detector on Earth, housed in a former gold mine. From there, it journeys across space and time to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, speeding alongside particles before they collide in visually stunning explosions of light and sound.

Suitable for: ages 13+ 

Movie duration: 28 minutes

Join Lucia, a PhD student in physics, on an exploration of how gravitational waves are formed, how they move through the universe, and how scientists like her work to hear them. 

Suitable for: ages 14+ 

Movie duration: 23 minutes