Millions upon Millions of Twinkling Stars

In a western suburb of Tokyo, you can see more stars than anywhere else on the planet. From July of this year, the Tamarokuto Science Center opened a planetarium in which a dazzling 140 million stars are projected onto its ceiling. Thanks to the adoption of new technology featuring LEDs as the source of illumination, the individual stars in clusters that make up the Milky Way galaxy can be viewed, along with colors and hues that more faithfully represent the universe as we view it by telescopes from our own planet. With a circumference of 27.5 meters, the planetarium’s dome is also one of the world’s largest, and during refurbishing, measures were taken to conceal seams in the screen. The added clarity and deep blackness of the starry sky heightens its appeal. “When you visit us, please be sure to bring along a pair of binoculars,” a staff of the Science Center urges.