Plan a Field Trip

Planetarium Shows
Morehead planetarium shows are an exciting way to engage and inspire your students with a love of science. Surround your students with the sights, sounds, and sensations of an extraordinary educational adventure! Each program includes a planetarium show and, as time permits, a live mini-star tour and a question & answer session with a Morehead educator. Available shows cover a wide variety of science content, not just Astronomy! See our planetarium shows page for a full list of available shows to pick from and recommended grade ranges.

Capacity: 200 seats
Grades: K-12, depending on show choice.
Duration: 45 minutes

Science LIVE! Shows
Live shows in Morehead’s Science Stage captivate students of all ages. Each “Science LIVE!” program engages the audience and asks for volunteers to participate in exciting science demonstrations. Available demonstrations will feature various exciting experiments in chemistry and physics. Specific demonstrations may vary depending on grade level. While most demonstrations are recommended for grades 2 and up, a special version of this program is available for grades K-1. See our Science LIVE! page for a full list of available Science LIVE! programs.

Capacity: 74 seats
Grades: 2-12. A special version of this program is available upon request for grades K-1.
Duration: 45 minutes

Enrichment Experiences
Add an extra dimension to your visit with a hands-on, minds-on Enrichment Experience led by a Morehead educator. These sessions feature hands-on, peer-to-peer learning activities for students to reinforce astronomy concepts such as orbits, day/night cycles, eclipses, or learn about engineering by designing, building, and testing their own Mars lander. See our Enrichment Experiences page for more a full list of available Enrichment Experience sessions and recommended grades.

Capacity: 60 students (30 per classroom) *A minimum of 10 students is required to book this program.
Grades: 3-8, depending on choice of session.
Duration: 45 minutes. Can be shorter or longer depending on how quickly activities are completed and how long Q & A takes.

Launch Lab
In Launch Lab, students will work in groups to complete unique engineering challenges. Each program highlights STEM field careers and focuses on the engineering process of designing, building, testing, and adjusting. See our Launch Lab page for a full list of available Launch Lab sessions and recommended grades.

Capacity: 30 students. *A minimum of 10 students is required to book this program.
Grades: 3-12, depending on choice of program.
Duration: 45 minutes. Can be shorter or longer depending on how quickly activities are completed and how long Q & A takes.

Exhibits
Explore our self-paced exhibits with your students and learn about exciting science research happening right now at UNC Chapel Hill, as well as learn about Morehead’s history, including our role in training the original Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts. We can provide an exhibit scavenger hunt as a guide to help field trips rotate through each exhibit in small groups. Groups can also use exhibit time to visit our gift shop, Cosmic Goods.

Exhibits are an optional add-on that is free for all guests with admission to at least one other program. To ensure a meaningful and enjoyable experience and limit over-crowding, the exhibits have a limited capacity of about 50 guests per 30 minute session. As such, there is sometimes not enough timeslots per day for all field trips in one day to visit exhibits. If you would like to include exhibits in your visit, you’ll have the option to request it on the reservation form, and our team will ensure we find a date/time that includes a timeslot for exhibits.

Capacity: about 50 guests
Grades: 3-12. Younger grades may still enjoy interactive aspects of exhibits, but exhibit content is geared toward grades 3+ and adults.
Duration: 30 minutes

Please use the Request a Reservation button on this page to make a reservation for your school of 10 or more people. Reservations must be requested and confirmed as far in advance as possible, at least two weeks in advance. We can only accommodate reservation requests up to two weeks in advance.

From September through May, the weekday program schedule is not pre-determined, and schools are welcome to choose their programs as availability permits. Reservations for this period typically open in early summer. During the summer (June through August), weekday programs are pre-scheduled, and groups may choose from shows on the pre-set schedule. Reservations for summer typically open in mid to late spring.

After we receive your request, Morehead’s reservations team will contact you to discuss your reservation options and help complete your reservation within a few business days. During high-volume months (August-early October and January-February), the reservations team may take up to a week to reply to new reservation requests.

Please email our reservations team at mpsc_reservations@email.unc.edu or call our Reservations Team at 919.843.7993 if you need additional assistance.

Terms

• Balances for reservations are due by 5 pm on or before three business days before the visit date. Morehead reserves the right to cancel any reservation that remains unpaid by the due date.
• Payments are accepted by card (VISA/MasterCard/Discover) or school check (no personal checks, please).
• North Carolina public schools (K-12, charter, and college/universities), NC state agencies, and local NC county agencies such as school districts, libraries, etc. may receive net-30 payment terms upon request. Contact our Reservations Team with questions.

Policies

• Every student and adult (educators, parents, and bus drivers) in your group requires admission and must be counted in your group reservation numbers.
• Children or adults with a Morehead membership cannot use their member benefits for admission during a school field trip or other group visit.
• Payments must be lump sum. Individual guests may not pay separately.
• Cancellations for non-private show reservations must be requested by three business days prior, when balances are due.
• Cancellations for non-private shows made less than three business days prior but before the day of the visit are eligible for a refund of 50% of fees paid, with the remainder charged as a cancellation fee.
• Cancellations on the day of the visit are not eligible to be refunded.

Private Planetarium Shows*

• Students/Children: $9.95 + tax
• Adults: $10.95 + tax
• A minimum charge of $500 before tax must be met for any private show reservation.
• A tax of 7.5% is applicable to private shows.
• Available Mondays, Tues-Thurs after 4:30 pm, or Fri-Sun after 6 pm.
• Private show reservations must be booked and confirmed more than two weeks in advance.
• Balances for private show reservations are due at the time of booking. Payment must be made to confirm the reservation.
• Cancellations made more than two weeks before the show are charged a $75 cancellation fee, but any remaining fees paid are eligible for a refund.
• Cancellations made less than two weeks before the show are ineligible for refund.

*Availability varies, and exceptions may be considered on a case-by-case basis. Morehead reserves the right to decline requests. Private show reservations include a 1-hour planetarium show and do not include access to exhibits or other programs.

Morehead has a limited capacity to accommodate schools and non-school groups on weekends due to differences in operations on weekends vs. weekdays. Both schools and non-school groups can book reservations on weekends with the following limitations:

• A limited number of tickets for each weekend show are available for purchase by schools or non-school groups. The remaining tickets are not available for schools or non-school groups and are only available to the general public once tickets are on sale starting two weeks prior. The maximum number of tickets available for group sales to any Planetarium show is 50. Tickets to science stage programs cannot be reserved on weekends. Seating is first-come, first-serve for groups and the general public to those programs.
• Weekend reservations cannot be scheduled less than two weeks before the visit. Groups wishing to visit in less than two weeks may purchase tickets online at the general public rate. Group and school rate discounts are not available less than two weeks in advance.
• Weekend reservations must be paid for at the time tickets are reserved. Schools and universities (public, charter, and private schools) can hold reservations without payment up to two weeks before the show, but payment must be made two weeks in advance. Ticket sales are final and are non-refundable.
• Weekend groups traveling in buses or oversized vehicles may drop off in the parking lot but must park elsewhere and return later to pick groups up after their visit. Buses and large vehicles may not park in the lot.
• Similar to weekday programs, weekend shows and programs start promptly on time. We cannot late-seat large groups once the show has begun since this would disrupt the show. Morehead does not offer refunds for late groups, but you may reschedule your group to a later show that day if availability permits.
• Morehead reserves the right to limit availability for school and non-school group reservations on certain weekends throughout the year due to impacts on operations that further limit our ability to support large groups of visitors on those days.

For group reservations, it is Morehead’s policy to have the contact info of the group visiting in addition to the third party or charter operator. Please include the organization’s name and a contact person we can copy on email communications as needed.

• If a third party arranges a group visit, they are financially responsible for the visit, and payment is required two weeks in advance of the visit. “Third party” is defined as a company, organization, or individual (charter operator, travel agent, etc.) who is not an employee of the organization or group.

Through the generous gifts of many donors, Morehead is able to offer field trip subsidies or scholarships to schools that meet certain criteria.

If you would like to request a scholarship for your reservation, you can do so when you make your online request. If you have already booked a reservation and would like to be considered for a scholarship, contact our reservations office at 919.843.7993 or by email at mpsc_reservations@email.unc.edu.

The priority deadline for scholarship requests is the second Sunday in September. Requests received by this date will be booked to their date, with their scholarship request added initially to a waitlist. All scholarship requests received by the priority deadline will be evaluated at once. Schools will be notified as soon as possible after the evaluation period of their scholarship status.

Requests received after the second Sunday in September will be evaluated on a first-come, first-served basis, and scholarships will be awarded as long as funding is available.

Morehead does not coordinate lunch orders as an add-on for field trip groups; however, schools are welcome to place catered lunch orders with area vendors. If you plan to have lunch delivered, please inform our reservations team before your visit.

Please remember that Morehead does not have an indoor space for groups to eat lunch. However, a small picnic table area behind the planetarium with a tent cover can seat ~30/40 students. Otherwise, plenty of open lawns are nearby the planetarium for a picnic-style lunch.

In the event of poor weather, it’s important to note that other than the tented picnic tables and a small covered patio in front of the building, there are no nearby spaces to eat lunch. Morehead recommends eating lunch on the bus or on the way back to your school in such situations.

The parking lot in front of Morehead Planetarium & Science Center is owned and operated by UNC-Chapel Hill and is unavailable for parking buses or oversized vehicles. Buses and large vehicles can pull into the parking lot and drop off guests, but they must park off-site.

UNC-Chapel Hill has designated limited space on the South Campus for bus parking on weekdays in the morning and early afternoons. This parking is located along Skipper Bowles Drive in the right-most travel lane between Kenan Drive and Tar Heel Boulevard/Carolina Basketball Museum in front of the Dean E. Smith Center. Buses may not block driveways/vehicle entrances, crosswalks, or the Chapel Hill Transit bus stop in front of the Smith Center. Printable directions to this parking area are available as well as through Google Maps.

Otherwise, buses may park elsewhere in Chapel Hill while waiting to pick up their group. Morehead recommends buses park off-site at New Hope Commons shopping center, about 5 miles off campus. Directions to the shopping center from Morehead are available. The shopping center is located eastbound on Franklin Street and Hwy 15/501, just past the intersection with Interstate 40.

Please note: University Place Mall is NOT available for bus parking. Due to ongoing construction and future impacts on parking lot configuration, it will no longer be a suitable off-campus location for buses and oversized vehicles.

Please see information about public parking on our Plan A Visit page.

UNC-Chapel Hill manages the lot in front of Morehead as a campus parking lot, and spaces are often limited or unavailable. Guests arriving in separate vehicles should plan to arrive early if the lot is full to allow time to find parking along the street or nearby town lots.