Museum of Science and the Cosmos

Hands-on science and astronomy museum with a planetarium and a radio telescope on its plaza

The Museum of Science and the Cosmos is a science museum in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, on Tenerife, run by the Cabildo de Tenerife through Museos de Tenerife. It opened on 11 May 1993, promoted by the Cabildo and the neighbouring Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. The half-star-shaped building is the work of Jordi Garcés and Enric Sòria. Its interactive displays cover all the sciences with a lean towards astronomy, and it has a planetarium and an auditorium.

Museum

Entrance: €5 for adults, €3.50 for children; students and pensioners paid the reduced rate in 2019, and residents paid less. Free entry at set times on Friday and Saturday afternoons. Planetarium shows cost extra (€1 in 2019).
Accessibility: Wheelchair-accessible entrance, accessible parking and an accessible toilet.
Parking: Paid car park and free street parking nearby; an unpaved car park about 90 m away. Accessible parking spaces.
Difficulty: None: the tram stops at the door and the whole visit is indoors, apart from the plaza outside.
Transport: Tenerife Tram Line 1, Museo de la Ciencia stop, immediately outside; buses at Mencey Bencomo, about 120 m away.
Hours: Monday to Saturday 9:00–19:00; Sunday 10:00–17:00.
Address: Av. de los Menceyes, 70, 38205 La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

What makes it special

Outside the entrance stands a radio telescope dish painted with the lunar coordinates of Montes Teneriffe, a range on the Moon that carries the island's name. The plaza also holds a small telescope and an analemmatic sundial, where your own shadow tells the time.

Inside, most exhibits are meant to be handled. You can work a lever, build a bridge, see how a mobile phone works and look inside the human body, then move on to the Earth's rotation, sunspots and flares, and orbits around a black hole. The astronomy room has models of the Gran Telescopio Canarias and of the Teide and Roque de los Muchachos observatories, the instruments that brought the museum into being.

The planetarium dome is 6.5 metres across. A GOTO star projector puts 2,800 stars on it, alongside a Digistar 5 digital system for the shows. Talks run in the auditorium, and the museum holds astronomical nights.

Good to know

Exhibit labels are in Spanish. Scan the QR code at the start for the translations before the children run ahead.
Some interactive exhibits are out of order or under repair at any given time.
There is no live guide: the explanations come from the boards and the digital guide.
Planetarium shows take a separate ticket from general entry.
Toilets are inside the museum, including an accessible one.

Getting there

The tram does most of the work. Its stop, named after the museum, sits immediately outside the door, so the walk from the platform is a matter of steps. Buses stop at Mencey Bencomo, about 120 m away.

By car, there is a paid car park and free street parking nearby. An unpaved car park lies about 90 m from the museum; a second one, about 120 m away, is private. The building stands next to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, on the edge of La Laguna.

Best time to visit

Best: a grey or wet day, when the coast has nothing to offer and an indoor visit costs you no sunshine.

Avoid: arriving late on a Sunday.

Sunday hours are shorter than the rest of the week, and the hands-on rooms and a planetarium show need more time than a quick walk-through allows.

Sun & daylight

Historical landmark

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