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SCHOOLCHILDREN will just have to gaze elsewhere if they want to learn about our Universe and the stars in the night sky.

Madame Tussauds has decided that the Planetarium, in Baker Street, Central London, which has taught thousands of schoolchildren about astronomy, physics and space exploration since the 1950s, will be better served by a show about a different type of star.

Madame Tussauds has cut screenings of the three-dimensional Journey to Infinity at the Planetarium, renamed the Auditorium, from forty-five minutes to ten. It will reopen in July with a show about celebrities.

It’s about this time of year that I make a resolution to learn a little more about the night sky and look around for star maps. Now that the chance to visit the London Planetarium seems to have gone forever I need something else to recognise Uranus.

Maybe the answer is Stellarium :

“Stellarium is free GPL software which renders realistic skies in real time with openGL. With Stellarium, you really see what you can see with your eyes, binoculars or a small telescope. Stellarium is also used in planetariums.”

Grab yourself a copy and join me on the patio ….