{"id":294,"date":"2017-06-07T10:23:09","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T17:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/planetarium\/?page_id=294"},"modified":"2026-08-13T15:42:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T22:42:02","slug":"donate-to-the-planetarium","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/planetarium\/donate-to-the-planetarium\/","title":{"rendered":"Donate to the Planetarium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The planetarium at Palomar College is a beautiful facility built to serve Palomar College and the Community of San Diego. However, it is a very expensive place to operate. Funds from Proposition M were used to build this state-of-the-art venue, but operational costs are paid for from our weekly revenue and from donations. We take great pride in offering quality educational and entertaining presentations to all visitors to the planetarium while keeping our ticket prices low and affordable \u2013 offering many discounts to kids, seniors, military, and students. With the exception of the salary of the Planetarium Director and Assistant Planetarium Director, there is NO additional regular funding provided by the College. All staff members who help us run the planetarium on public nights are paid for through revenue generated from ticket sales.  The Planetarium must be self-supporting and so relies on revenue from ticket sales and, more importantly, we rely on the generous donations made by the community.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Make an online donation<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Some of the ways your donation helps support the Planetarium:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Student Workers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The planetarium support staff is composed of student workers from Palomar College and other local colleges. These workers learn valuable skills related to running a public outreach venue, operating telescopes, and using the Digistar 7 presentation technology. Your donation helps us pay the hourly wages of these student workers and provides an income while they are attending college courses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Student workers Ann and Steve learn how to use the telescopes for the planetarium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Public Outreach<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Public outreach is one of the main missions of the planetarium. Most of the public outreach events that we offer are free to the public but have certain inherent costs involved that become difficult when we offer an event to the public at no cost but still pay our student workers and pay for refreshments and other costs involved. Your donation helps us offset these costs and allows us to offer more events for you to participate in! Here are a few ways your donation helps our public outreach mission:<\/p>\n\n\n\n