The Morehead Planetarium and Science Center is one of the oldest and largest planetariums in the United States. Visitors can enjoy multimedia star shows, multiple exhibits, and year-round programming for all ages. Many of the Planetarium's shows are completely original, written and produced on location at the center. Programming at the center includes classes for kids, summer camps, story time, monthly sky watching sessions, and Girl Scout workshops. The Planetarium is located in downtown Chapel Hill on Franklin Street. The building is on the north end of the campus of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since it is a unit of the university, Morehead receives about one-third of its funding through state sources, one-third through ticket and gift sales, and one-third through gifts and grants.

The Planetarium was a gift to UNC-Chapel Hill from John Motley Morehead, an 1891 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill who went on to become one of the founders of the Union Carbide Corporation. Morehead Planetarium opened on May 10, 1949, and, within ten years, had become an important part of the NASA space program. Nearly every NASA astronaut trained at Morehead Planetarium between 1959 and 1975. Moorhead?s first interactive exhibit was held on February 23, 2007, titled Zoom In: Science at the Extremes which features current science at the extremes of size and scale, including research done by UNC scientists. More exhibits followed later on like the Ancient Carolinians which opened on November 17, 2007 and explores the lives of the first people to live in North Carolina.

Today, the Morehead Planetarium and Science center houses a small, yet fascinating museum that features rotating exhibits about the planetarium's history and its critical role in the success of NASA's early missions. The Planetarium also hosts public classes, lectures, summer camps for children in addition to its full schedule of planetarium shows. Morehead's planetarium seats about 240 people and boasts two different state-of-the-art projection systems.