For decades, Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colorado Boulder has captivated audiences.
Now, the planetarium — which offers astronomy displays and laser light shows — is kicking off an academic-year-long celebration with special events each month to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The celebration began Friday, which marked exactly 50 years since Fiske first opened its doors to the community.
Fiske offers the largest planetarium dome between Chicago and Los Angeles, according to CU’s website, and serves about 75,000 people each year. It’s open to the public every Thursday through Sunday and offers a wide range of programming, including full-dome films, star talks, live talks, laser shows, concerts and theatrical productions. It also hosts large public gatherings during celestial events, such as eclipses, and NASA-related launches and landings.
It’s a gem of the CU Boulder campus and a gem of Boulder, Fiske’s Director John Keller said.
“Our goal is to be a place that’s always pushing the cutting edge, pushing the limits in terms of what we can do with technology and immersive experiences,” Keller said.
Fiske will hold a special 50th anniversary event each month of this academic year. Events include a history of astronomy over the decades, CU astronauts night, teacher appreciation night and a celebration of romance with the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra. For a full list of special events, visit colorado.edu/fiske/fiske-is-50. Fiske’s normal programming will continue as well.
“(Fiske) provides an immersive opportunity to go and experience a place and really feel like you’re there,” Keller said.
Operations Manager Francisco Salas has been working at Fiske for 35 years. One of his favorite parts of the job is when K-12 kids come in and are in complete awe of the planetarium.
“Once they do that, you know you have something to really be proud of because you’re making an impression on this new generation,” Salas said. “And hopefully they’ll come to see you or other universities and will keep studying science.”
It’s also a special moment when a former student comes back to Fiske with their own kids for the same class they took when they were 5 or 6 years old.
“I think the future is bright. I don’t think that we are even at our peak,” Salas said. “We just keep reinventing ourselves. The amazing stuff that we have, they keep bringing new ideas about how we can make this place better. And the reason why that is, is because they do it from true love for this place. And you can see that every second, every day, month after month.”
MacKenzie Zurfluh, the offsite education lead at Fiske who graduated from CU Boulder in 2024, keeps cards she receives from from kids she’s worked with hanging in her office. The best part of her job is hearing a kid walk around saying how this is the best day of their life.
“I grew up being told I wasn’t smart enough to do astrophysics. I struggled in math and everything else, and to have that dream and have everybody be like, ‘I’m not sure that’s going to go well for you’ — my purpose here is to make sure that nobody ever feels like that.”
Part of Fiske’s programming includes outreach trips across Colorado to students that may not be able to access the planetarium otherwise. Fiske has a portable dome that can be inflated in a school gymnasium and fit between 20 and 30 kids inside.
Anna Pesce, presenter and outreach specialist who graduated from CU Boulder in 2024, said some of her favorite moments are when Fiske is able to reach and excite a kid who initially showed no interest.
“We have teachers tell us that (certain kids) haven’t been that excited about anything else they’ve done in classes, so it’s so fun to get to watch that happen and watch kids discover what we discovered when we were younger, which is how cool space is,” Pesce said.