Queen Elizabeth Planetarium Queen Elizabeth Planetarium The Queen Elizabeth Planetarium or Queen Elizabeth II Planetarium is a former planetarium located in Coronation Park in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was the first planetarium in Canada, operating between 1960 and 1983. Designed by Walter Tefler and R. F. Duke, it was named to commemorate the visit of Elizabeth II in 1959. In 1958 a proposal was put before Edmonton City Council to build a permanent civic memorial to mark the visit of Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in July 1959. Originally there were three projects proposed a 30.8 metre (94 foot) trilon
RMS Queen Elizabeth and an outdoor swimming pool. With these improvements, Cunard intended to keep the ship in operation until at least the middle 1970s. However, the strategy did not prove successful due to the high fuel costs plus the ship's deep draught, which prevented her from entering various island ports, and the ship's width which preventing her from using the Panama Canal. Cunard retired "Queen Mary" in 1967 and "Queen Elizabeth" by 1969 and replaced them with a single, smaller ship, the more economical "Queen Elizabeth 2". In 1968, "Queen Elizabeth" was sold to a group of American businessmen from a company