24.12.10: Melaka Planetarium Adventure Science Centre

We dropped by the Melaka Planetarium on our way back to Melaka. We arrived there at 11.45 am on Friday. The car parks were quite empty and we chose to park at the covered car park. Then we walked up the steps leading to the planetarium. There weren't many people that day. I think that this place lacks publicity as compared to all other tourist places in Melaka. Even when NASA was there last month, not many people knew about it. What a pity!

The tickets prices were more expensive than that of the National Planetarium in KL. Tickets cost RM8 per adult, which includes the space movies. I read online that the normal price is RM15 and I was told that this was a discounted rate.

  

In the theatre waiting for the space movies to start

It was a dome shaped theatre with reclining seats, and that made everything look 3D. We watched an interesting movie about how life on other planets would be like. It took quite some time for the actual movie to start, as they kept showing previews about other movies. Altogether, the movie and the preview of other movies took about 35 minutes. The movie was excellent -- the pictures were very clear and the sound system was good. Wish it were longer though! I felt that the space movies were the only redeeming feature about the planetarium, as there really wasn't much to see elsewhere in the planetarium and several exhibits were not working.

Mars Exploration Rover

My elder boy is quite interested in space and in this Mars Exploration Rover. He recalled seeing it in Planetarium Negara when we went there earlier this year. When we returned to KL, he took a book on the Solar System, turned to the page which had a picture of the rover and asked me to find out the name. Only then I realised that it was called rover. I had never seen this picture before we went to the planetarium this year. Then he asked me to search for videos of rover on youtube. He viewed the videos, and asked many questions. Then he viewed more videos on space rovers and even paused the youtube video to draw the rover. Looks like I've got to catch up with his learning. Haha!

Once you match the constellations correctly, the lights will appear. However, only a few were working. 

I looked around if there were any doors or floors that I missed, but it was just the ground floor which host the planetarium exhibits. At the lower level, which was a small place, there was some other unrelated expo going on, with no one there and to my surprise, heard a "Selamat Hari Raya" song being played over and over again. Hari Raya was over a few months ago and it was then Christmas eve.

On my way out, I asked the woman at the ticket counter, "Is that all?"

She replied in BM, "Have you checked the lower level?" 

I replied, "We did, but there was nothing much there and it's not related to the planetarium, which we came to see." 

"Itu sahaja (that's all)" she said.

Anyway, I'd still encourage people to visit the Melaka Planetarium, even if it's only to see the space movies,
I felt that they should advertise the space movies, just like the normal movies are advertised. This could attract more people to the place. The space movies were excellent, and I would go there again, just to watch the space movies.