Ingram Planetarium

The sky is the limit at the Ingram Planetarium. The Sunset Beach facility is home to an 85-seat sky dome theater, science hall, and gift shop. Educating and entertaining more than 12,000 visitors each year, the planetarium is a popular stop for first-time visitors, locals, and the regulars who return with their families year after year.

Opened in 2001, the planetarium began with the dream of one man  — Stuart Ingram. Always fascinated with the night sky, a young Ingram had to rely on the stars for navigation during his years as a pilot in World War II. Later, Ingram and his wife Louise spent vacations at their cottage on Ocean Isle. Here he realized the need for educating people about the local sea and sky and thus began a quest that resulted in the Museum of the Coastal Carolinas in 1991 (a natural history museum on Ocean Isle) and the Ingram Planetarium at Sunset Beach a decade later.

The planetarium's Paul Dennis Science Hall is home to several interactive exhibits. Visitors can view the solar system or the passage of the sun overhead at various times of the year. The View Space exhibit is linked to NASA by satellite and offers an up-to-the-minute view of the latest pictures of space from the Hubble space telescope. At another table, visitors can highlight the night sky for any given month of the year, seeing which of the constellations should be overhead at that time. A telescope exhibit includes both antique and modern equipment.

One of only 11 planetariums in North Carolina, the Sunset Beach facility is unique because it is the only one that is privately funded. While other planetariums are associated with local governments or universities, Ingram relies solely on revenues and private donations. This hasn't stopped Ingram, however. The planetarium offers an impressive variety of programs that change seasonally.

In the summer afternoons....