Up to £2 million has been made available for the cost of re-opening the Armagh Planetarium to the general public.

The centre was closed in November 2000 for health and safety reasons and, since then, has been concentrating on outreach work to schools using inflatable star domes. It is anticipated that the facility will be re-open within the next 18 months.

Part of the work will see the famous Space Theatre fully equipped with brand new state-of-the-art technology.

Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister Angela Smith today: “It is nearly four years since this terrific facility was last fully operational and, as one of Northern Ireland’s top visitor attractions, it has been sorely missed."

Ms Smith explained that the investment would transform the Planetarium, the only facility of its type on the island of Ireland, into one of the most modern public buildings. Particular attention will be paid to easy access for disabled people and the Space Theatre is to be refitted with the most advanced 3D digital projection system in the world, the Digistar 3.

This special computerised system will now enable the entire dome to be filled with spectacular video scenes of the cosmos.

The Armagh Planetarium opened in 1968 as the outreach arm of Armagh Observatory and has been the public face of astronomy in Northern Ireland for over 30 years.

Since 2000, its staff have presented live science shows to over 50,000 people and have developed programmes for special needs schools and minority community groups.

(MB/GMCG)