Dr. Edmond E. Griffin Planetarium
The Dr. Edmond E. Griffin Planetarium, located on the 痴汉俱乐部 Campus in the Conway Corporation Center for the Sciences, serves as an astronomy and science education resource center for central Arkansas.听 The planetarium is part of the outreach component of the Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Engineering, and as such, it supports astronomy teaching on campus, as well as, offers planetarium shows to school groups and the general public.
Summer 2026 Public Shows
The one-hour shows on Fridays at 3pm and 7pm include a tour of the current sky, a flight around the universe, and a full-dome movie . The planetarium is located in the Conway Corporation Center for the Sciences. Seating starts 10 minutes before show time. Admission is free. Seating limited to the first 94. No admission after the shows begin. No food or drink allowed.
May 29, 3pm & 7pm: 听River of Bears
鈥淩iver of Bears is about the legendary McNeil River Alaska State Game Sanctuary. During the summertime it hosts the largest congregation of brown bears in the world. Bears come from hundreds of miles to the sanctuary to mate, raise cubs, and dine on the abundant sedge grass and salmon. On a typical day in July over fifty bears can be seen at the McNeil River falls, feasting on salmon desperately swimming upstream to spawn. The show tells the remarkable story of these bears as they prepare for the coming harsh Alaska winter, and the visitors and scientists who come every summer to see them.鈥�
June 5, 3pm & 7pm: 听Two Small Pieces of Glass – The Amazing Telescope
” This show follows two students as they interact with an astronomer at a local star party. Along the way, the students learn the history of the telescope from Galileo鈥檚 modifications to a child鈥檚 spyglass 鈥� using two small pieces of glass 鈥� to the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the future of astronomy. 听The show explores the wonder and discovery made by astronomers throughout the last 400 years.”
June 12, 3pm & 7pm: 听One Sky
“This is the fulldome feature version of the One Sky Project short films. Each short film represents the perspective of a different culture or Indigenous society from around the globe. Each film stands alone as a short story or in combination as a longer narrative 鈥� organized around themes of “Finding Patterns” and developing tools, or as we say, “To Seek Far.”
June 19, 3pm & 7pm: 听Supermassive Black Holes
“Leading scientists in observational and theoretical studies of black holes and galaxies, industrial experts in cutting-edge big technologies, and professionals in science dissemination have been brought together to set up research projects which will combine the latest state-of-the-art observations, numerical simulations and innovative analytic tools to compare theory with observation, and shed light on the physics of black hole formation in the context of galaxy evolution. This planetarium show presents the environments of the black holes in an impressive and understandable way to the audience.”
June 26, 3pm & 7pm: 听Mayan and Aztec Archeoastronomy
鈥淚n a feast of colours and sounds, Mayan Archaeoastronomy: Observers of the Universe makes a tour of 6 Mayan temples: San Gervasio, Chichen Itz谩, Uxmal, Edzn谩, Palenque and Bonampak where the spectator dives into a Mayan world of knowledge about the importance of the orientations of its temples in relation to the movement of some stars like the Sun, the Moon and Venus.鈥�
鈥淭hrough impressive immersive scenarios, 鈥淢exica Archaeoastronomy: between space and time鈥� illustrates the important role played by astronomical observation for the evolution of pre-Hispanic cultures in central Mexico. The Mexicas used the calendrical and astronomical knowledge inherited by their predecessor cultures to found the capital of their empire: Tenochtitlan. Vibrant colors, shapes and sounds transport the viewer to one of the most important cultures that, to this day, still lives of the Mexican people.鈥�
SUPPORT GRIFFIN:
ABOUT:
Contact: Sandy Nilz, Admin. Specialist III
phone: 501.450.5900
Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Engineering
痴汉俱乐部
Conway, AR 72035
Staff:
Dr. Scott听听Austin
phone: 501.450.5907
Director of Astronomical Facilities
Associate Professor of Astronomy and Physics
Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Engineering
痴汉俱乐部
Conway, AR 72035
History:
From 1987 to 2015, the original UCA planetarium that was located in Lewis Science Center used an electromechanical planetarium projector and a thirty-foot dome to simulate the sky as seen from the surface of the Earth.
The current digital planetarium in the Conway Corporation Center for the Sciences consists of 94 seats under a forty-foot diameter dome onto which an Evans & Sutherland dual projector Digistar 7 system creates a virtual universe.听 The universe can now be seen from other locations in the universe, such as, in orbit around Saturn, near a binary star system in our galaxy, or from a galaxy a several million light years from the Earth.
The building of a new planetarium was supported by Dr. Sue Griffin, a world-class neuroscientist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and named in memory of her husband Dr. Ed Griffin, a long-time faculty member, chair of the 痴汉俱乐部 Biology Department, and astronomy enthusiast.
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