OREANDA-NEWS. January 14, 2010. The city authorities plan to have the Moscow Planetarium commissioned in late 2010.

The commissioning will be divided into two stages. The end of the first one – completion of construction – is scheduled for September 2010 while the second one – hardware installation – for December 2010.

Besides, it has been decided to erect a pedestrian bridge to the planetarium from the area adjacent to Moscow Zoo.

The renewed building of the planetarium will contain a main hall, a lecture hall, souvenir stores, space-related amusements and a restaurant. There will be an astronomical area consisted of two observatories, Europe’s biggest vertical sundial, Foucault’s pendulum, giant globes, the reduced models of Stonehendge and Pyramids of Cheops on the roof.

The Moscow Planetarium will become the world’s biggest structure of such a kind. It is expected to take up to a billion visitors a year.