Came on a date night and it was wonderful! The 8PM "San Antonio Sky Tonight" was great! The presenter was knowledgeable and I loved going through the constellations you can see in the sky at this time of year. Highly recommend when booking tickets to get a seat fairer to the "back" so you don't have to break your neck looking at the stars, haha. read more

Before covid, my son did a one-week space summer camp here. He enjoyed it. They taught about the different planets, space suits, and stars. They even made a spacesuit for the kids to take home. At the time the camp was less than 15 kids. They have a fun animated video after the camp is over for kids and their families to enjoy. The parking lot is a good size so plenty of parking. The facility was clean and well maintained. Programs offered may vary with the season so check out their website for up-to-date information. read more

See all

I've been wanting to come to the Scobee Planetarium for awhile but alas the opportunity to do so has never come up. I've always been fascinated by space or at least its concept, which seems to be infinite. There's not many places to indulge that in the city except in the Hill Country, where the constellations are more luminescent. Recently they offered a program, "The Aurora Experience" which documents the Aurora Borealis, a cosmic phenomenon in the Northern Hemisphere that can only be viewed here every twelve years. Needless to say I was in, all eyes. The planetarium, housed on the campus San Antonio College represents our wonderment in space. All over the building are traces of space exploration via artifacts; a memorial of the Crew of The Challenger hangs heavily on the walls. The Observatory is open weather permitting to the public. I like that it's programs are geared toward families and schools. When they do have programs they are typically offered in three levels: The first showing is for children. The second is more involved, aimed towards teens. And the last one is meant for mature audiences with some age restrictions for children. Thirty minutes before each program the box office is open and you purchase tickets $5( There is a line for credit or cash) a person. I suggest getting there early as auditorium sitting fills up rather quickly. I always assumed it would be big but it's a small, intimate venue. The dome or the ceiling is where images are projected onto. I think its intention is for you to surrender to the visuals, the experience of looking deep in the vastness of the heavens. Although the program is brief, typically no more than 30 minutes to an hour I believe it's worth your time. I saw a review and someone suggested that the experience would benefit with reclining seats. I agree. So long as seats are adjusted ever so slightly. However this program shouldn't be confused with the experience of going to a movie theater. Personally I feel that it benefits from us adjusting our necks, our gaze as visuals become long or wide. Don't we do the same thing as we look into a starry night? The Scobee Planetarium is the perfect place to indulge our fascination in the cosmos. Although the programs are brief their ideas are far reaching. Don't forget to take your photo in the astronaut suit! All that's missing is the MTV Flag... read more

Talk about PlayStation 2 graphics, it's 2024 why can't they upgrade to 4k, and everything in the video, I've already seen on the history channel, nope never again, all love to my boy Rick V the owner tho, he's a great person read more

I visited the Denver planetarium about 65 years ago and was blown away with the visuals. Seating was perfect and projector was in the center of the room, pointing straight up, not on the wall pointing out at the audience. We were in the front row, not worth even a free admission, images were blurry and very dated. With the current imagery of the planets and our sun, one would've expected much more of the presentation. Not even the northern lights. Nada. With outdated projector/optics and inefficient seating, what was upgraded? Based on my introduction to the sky in Denver, I'd really puffed the experience to my grandchildren hoping to get them interested in the sky. I'm still apologizing. read more

The planetarium is located on the San Antonio College campus and has recently undergone a very expensive renovation. They have added new shows and overall it is a fun experience. Shows open to the public at this time are only on Friday evenings. The 630 PM show is open to all ages and the show targets the munchkin age group. The later shows are ages 6 and up only and offer a longer program. I would suggest arriving early because they only allow 60 people then cap it. There is not an option to reserve tickets online, which would be a lot more convenient. It seemed to be cash only. Tickets were $4 for kids and $5 for adults. The dome was super cool and it is definitely an activity the kids will remember. Once the show starts they don't allow entry/exit so keep that in mind. read more

See all

Far out! This place is out of this world! Such a cool addition to the SAC campus! This place has a full planetarium, where you can lean back into your seat, and see the dome above you get transformed into the galaxy or the cosmos! Parking is easy, and there's lots to see while you're waiting for the show to start. There's a cool exhibit that shows off how San Antonio has helped put stuff in outer space! They've got some old space shuttle pieces you can look at, and an astronaut's suit that you can try out and put your head in! There's so much cool artwork to look at. There's a really cool memorial to the brave astronauts who lost their lives in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Tonight, they were airing a show called "Secrets of the Planets" which is about how planets get formed. Cool! This is a really cool place to get all nerdy! Go check it out! read more

If you go take cash. They form two lines and let the people who pay cash buy tickets first even if you were there before them. I worked a 12 hr shift and got ready to go see the show with my family to only be turned away with 2 people ahead of me because the show was full already. They need a better system to buy tickets or form 1 line. read more

Most amazing place in San Antonio to learn about astronomy. This is great for kids, teenagers, and adults of any age. You will learn something I'm sure! I went here for the partial eclipse party and had a great time. They provided glasses for the first 1000 guests. They also had telescopes for everyone to get a glance at the partial eclipse. There were two food vendors. Which in the future they should probably have more because there were over 1000 people there for the event. I will definitely be back here! Hopefully just for fun and not a huge event so I can explore the planetarium a little more in depth. read more

A must place to visit for learning about our planet! It's not the old SAC planetarium that most of visited years ago. A highly recommend place for educators and students! read more

Scobee Planetarium: Where technology meets bad execution. We took our daughter last night, Sept 4, 2015. She had done well all week in school, so we wanted to reward her with something new and fun...and educational. We saw "Extreme Planets". The documentary quality was terrible. The resolution was so blurry I thought it was a bad joke that would be quickly corrected with a chuckle. No luck. When I commented on this to the staff, I was told, WITHOUT APOLOGY or any money-back offer, that this should improve with a new 4K system to be installed in November. The seats were nice except that they don't recline, so you have to strain to look up at the ceiling projection for the entire documentary feature. My neck still hurts. The only cool thing about the evening was that we waited patiently to get to see through the new telescope. We got to see Saturn for about 10 seconds. Not a great view, but cool nonetheless. I have to say that we were very disappointed by the whole experience. SAC clearly got LOTS of $$$ to build this thing. Common sense was obviously not included in the budget. What a shame. I would think decency would dictate that they would not open until they worked out these silly bugs. If nothing else, it seems that whoever paid for the renovation would want these things fixed before they put their name on it. Pros: 1. The planetarium itself is clean and cool. 2. Friendly staff. 3. Beautiful huge space documentary viewing room. Cons: 1. Tickets can only be purchased IN PERSON and can be paid with Cash or Check ONLY. And, to top it off, they don't have an ATM. What?? (If you try to buy the tickets online, you can easily accidentally buy tickets for a different, California-based planetarium.) 2. Documentary movie resolution SUCKS!!! It's like watching a giant old-school tube television that's bad for your eyes. You're better off watching a science documentary on your phone. 3. Sound system sucks. 4. Non-reclining seats are a ridiculous oversight. 5. Telescope access is too limited. NOTE: The other Scobee Planetarium review (by Kathryn) is from over a YEAR ago. You should it ignore it, because it is no longer applicable. read more

My review echoes the sentiments expressed by "terry w." who rated his Scobee Planetarium experience with a 1-star rating. I'm going to be generous and render a 2-star rating based upon my July 29, 2022 attendance at a presentation on exoplanets. To begin with . . . the imagery was blurry, just as terry w. noted in his review. One would expect at least HD images. Although I'm not an astronomer, the information presented in the 'video' seems a bit outdated for 2022 -- I'm guessing the video is at least three or four years old. Honestly . . . I've seen much better exoplanet videos -- better in informative content and video quality/resolution -- on YouTube and the Discovery Channel. There was a introductory "briefing" or "lecture" just before the audiovisual presentation, but it was mostly about the Scobee Planetarium, and a few words about the James Webb Space Telescope. The speaker said something about a University of Texas professor who was granted access to Webb telescope imagery, but no name was mentioned. There was a brief discussion of the planets and a few of the constellations visible from San Antonio's latitude. Unfortunately, there was no Q&A session following the 30-35 video presentation. There was an opportunity to take a peek through rooftop telescope -- but light pollution in the downtown area is so bad, there wasn't much to see through the scope- and so it was hardly worth bothering to line up to spend a few seconds looking through the eyepiece. So . . . all in all . . . interesting for a first-timer. The kids kinda liked it . . . but they weren't thrilled. A much, much better overall experience can be had at the McDonald Observatory -- which is about a six-hour drive from San Antonio. I'm going to stick with my 2-Star rating since the experience was much less than stellar and probably not really worth the price of admission. read more

Took in a concert here. Parking was great. Staff was good. Would return. I also enjoy the changing exhibits throughout the different wings. Great job. read more

We went today for the grand reopening after a long long long renovation. Parking seemed to be a problem right away as there was some kind of sport event going on in the building directly across from the Scobee Education center, so try and get there early. Walking up to the building I felt that the new design was very interesting. It seemed futuristic and I like it. When we entered there wasn't too much to see YET...I think they will be adding more as they go. It was still nice however. A space suit was in the lobby area so you could pose in it and share your photo. Everything was very futuristic looking, extremely fitting for the purpose of the center. The planetarium itself was very clean. I felt the seating was a little cramped but you're not in there too long, so it's worth it. We watched the show titled "the Secret life of stars". It was pretty interesting...my only complaint is the sound. I know it isn't supposed to be Dolby surround or anything, but it wasn't that impressive. The room was also a bit stuffy, almost uncomfortable. We enjoyed the show and I do plan on coming back to see how the center continues to grow and improve. Overall, a good experience. read more

See all

Cash..cash..cash..did I mention it is CASH ONLY. A nice informative program..fun for the whole family.