The planetarium offers two shows every Friday night to give the public an opportunity to view different aspects of the evening skies. The first show, each Friday in April from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., is an examination of the night sky during springtime.

• April 1 -- "Galaxy Train Wrecks" -- in which UCLA researcher Sarah Gallagher explores the largest collisions in the universe, when galaxies made of many billions of stars smashed together.

• April 8 -- "The Voyager Encounters" -- in which recorded narrator Patrick Stewart shares the results of Voyager 1 and 2's visits to our solar system's outer planets and their moons.

• April 15 -- "Nature vs. Nurture: How Venus Went Bad" -- JPL planetary geophysicist Suzanne Smrekar will discuss how Earth and Venus, which started out with very similar mass and composition, ended up such different planets, Venus in particular being a virtual vision of hell with a surface temperature of 900 ¼F, sulfuric acid clouds and abundant volcanism.

• April 22 -- "Secret of Sound and Music" is a special program designed for the whole family where participants will hear and see standing waves on strings and plates and observe that they are the basis of the sound of string instruments.

• April 29 -- "Pluto, Sedna, and the Edge of the Solar System" -- in which Michael E. brown, professor of planetary astronomy at CalTech and co-discoverer of Sedna, will discuss what the discovery of the planet-like body means to our universe.

Student admission for planetarium shows is $3 for one show and $5 for both shows. General admission is $5 for one show and $8 for both shows.

Tickets are available at the University Student Union box office Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by calling the box office at (818) 677-2488.