Birla Planetarium

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Birla Planetarium[1] in Kolkata (Calcutta) is the largest planetarium in the World near the Government of India tourist office providing a view of the stars and the solar system. The Birla Planetarium is also present at the center of Hyderabad city, on the small hill known as Naubat Pahad (in hindi). It was opened by the Late Mr. N.T. Rama Rao, on 8 September 1985. This planetarium displays and demonstrates the advances in science and technology.

Visitors can tune in for daily sky shows in Telugu, Hindi and English languages and in Kolkata you can watch a show in Bengali and many other Indian languages. The show covers the various aspects of the Cosmos, Space and the galaxies of the Universe, the comets, the Hubble Space Telescope, Eclipses, the mysterious Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's) and the recent clash of the Titans.

The visitors are transported into a new world, as they watch a large dome of an open dark sky with full of shining stars looking down upon them. With excellent sound effects added upon them gives a feel of being in outer space.

The Dinosorium is the new addition to the planetarium, a wing which exhibits a 160 million years old mounted "Kotasaurus Yamanpalliensis", excavated in Adilabad district and presented to Science Museum by the Geological Survey of India. The Dinosaurium also has a collection of smaller fossils of dinosaur eggs, marine shells and fossilised tree trunks etc.

Significance: This is a modern temple (consecrated in 1976) built of white marble on top of a hill, dominating the skyline of Hyderabad. The Birlas (industrialists who have also built several temples in India in this century) built this temple. The presiding deity here is Venkateswara (Vishnu).

Bila Mindar

Architecture: This temple displays a mixture of architectural styles. A Rajagopuram built in the South Indian style greets the visitors. The tower over the main shrine of Venkateswara called the Jagadananda vimanam is built in the Orissan style while the towers over the shrines of the consorts are built in the South Indian style. The brass flagstaff rises to a height of 42 feet.

The granite image of the presiding deity is about 11 feet tall and a carved lotus forms an umbrella for this image. There are several carvings in marble, in the adjoining mukha mandapam - depicting scenes from Indian mythology. The temple is floodlit at nights.