Eise Eisinga Planetarium, Friesland Province, The Netherlands

5Keenomanjaro 5:00 PM Nov 29, 2020

Remarkable working planetarium
You would never believe it from passing by, but this modest little museum contains the World's oldest working planetarium - a truly remarkable piece of engineering and a real passion project that has thankfully been taken great care of over the years and now finds itself on the tentative list of UNESCO. The building is rather small, so doesn't lend itself well to social distancing, so numbers are limited and potential visitors would be strongly advised to book in advance to avoid being turned away. There are numerous rooms given over to astronomical themed exhibits, with several really eye-catching old devices and charts showing how our understanding of the universe has improved over time. The interpretive texts are a little patchy and are mainly in Dutch, so if you don't speak the language, you may have to employ a little imagination to figure out exactly what's what. The highlight of the visit is of course the planetarium room, which we had to queue a short while for, before being admitted and given a brief talk by one of the curators (also in Dutch). The ceiling is an incredible sight and you can also go upstairs to see the mechanism in action. This was a very interesting visit to a pretty unique attraction.

5Eaton_Out 5:00 PM May 13, 2022

Fascinating planatraium built in a home
We visited this planetarium as an excursion of a river cruise as an activity during a Harlingen port call. This was one of the most fascinating things that we saw during our entire 11 day trip. An brilliant man with little formal education built this in his home. The "works" are in the attic and the planets hang from the ceiling of his dining room. This is a must-see if in Harlingen.