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| - This new, high tech planetarium in Montreal just opened to the public on April 6th, 2013. It;s located next to other Montreal land marks (Olympic Park, BioDome and Botanical Gardens). It's very new, modern and high tech. They have two theatres. One you view the "sky" from bean bags on the floor or Muskoka chairs. Here they were showing a about 12 min artistic interpretation of the universe with a great music but there were no words, explanations. We saw this film first and loved the visual and overall experience of it but I was disappointed that there wasn't more information and description even though it was an artistic interpretation - but it was very beautiful. The second film is what I think of as a traditional planetarium. It's a theatre with adjusted chairs that allow you to see the "sky". this presentation kind of has two parts. First they show and describe the constellations of the seasonal Montreal night sky and then they go deeper into the far reaches of the universe to show nebulas, galaxies and all the rest. I really, really enjoyed this portion and felt it was very informative and is probably what most people expect/want when they visit a planetarium. They also have an exhibit type area that is very interactive with touch screens, and puzzles and talks from staff. I found this area a bit of a disappointment but also amazing. I felt like it was a bit more about how advanced and 'techie' it was then the information and there were some bugs in some of the touch screens closing things before you had finished reading and the 3 different talks that happened in the 2.5 hours we were there were all in French meaning we didn't participate. I get that they probably need this time of presentation space to draw in young learners but I felt like the science and knowledge wasn't as important in the process.
Overall I was impressed with the space, the theatres, the exhibit hall and the cafeteria was great. However it seems like they are still going through some growing pains (like lake of signage, non operational exhibits for example).
parking is expensive ($15 flat rate) so take advantage and see other things near by (ie olympic stadium or biodome) or take the Metro.
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