braamfontein
where people rise to greatness
Article
The Planetarium
Plans for the Planetarium building were drawn in 1958, and building commenced in 1959. On 12 October 1960 the first full-sized planetarium in Africa, and the second in the Southern Hemisphere, opened its doors to the public.
The history of the Johannesburg Planetarium begins in the year 1956, when the Festival Committee, instituted to organise the celebrations in that year of the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the city, decided that it would be a most fitting way to mark the occasion to raise the funds needed to buy and house a Zeiss Planetarium. With the assistance of the manufactures, and after prolonged negotiation, the Festival committee succeeded in inducing the City Council of Hamburg to sell the instrument which had been in use in that city since 1930. Meanwhile the responsibilities of the Festival Committee had been taken over by the Johannesburg City Council who, after further negotiations, finally sold the projector to the University of the Witwatersrand for use in the formal instruction of students and as a public amenity for the citizens of Johannesburg and of South Africa in general.