Schull Planetarium is located in the seaside village of Schull, in West Cork. It is the only planetarium in the Republic of Ireland, and has a beautiful situation beside Schull harbour and in the shadow of Mount Gabriel. Schull is a village known primarily for its fishing and sailing - it is the site of the Fastnet International Schools Regatta - and seems to many an unlikely location for a planetarium. The Planetarium came to be built in Schull due to the largesse of the late Herr Josef Menke, a German industrialist with a keen interest in astronomy. Herr Menke, and his family were frequent visitors to Schull, and felt, like so many others, the area's distinctive charm. Such was Schull's appeal to Herr Menke that he undertook to provide the community with a planetarium projector, if the community would provide the building to house it. This building was provided by the joint efforts of the Cork Vocational Education Committee (VEC) and Schull Development Association, with financial support from Bord Fáilte, the National Lottery, the West Cork Development Association and Cork County Council. The Planetarium was opened on the 9th of March 1989, by the then President of Ireland, Dr. Patrick Hillary. Since then, it has provided a sterling service to local and visiting astronomers. The Planetarium is centred around the Carl Zeiss single sphere sky projector, which is capable of projecting an accurate representation of the night sky, from anywhere in the northern hemisphere onto the Planetarium's 8 metre dome. The Planetarium is part of the local Community College, and along with the Fastnet Marine and Outdoor Education Centre, provides a unique educational resource to local children. The Planetarium is currently under the direction of Mr. Eugene MacSweeney, a teacher in the College. It is run on a day-to-day basis by Mark Sweetnam, Senior Lecturer, with the assistance of Michael John McCarthy, Lecturer and Daniel Patrick McCarthy, assistant.