It lies close to the Guindy National Park in the predominantly wooded Adyar-Guindy region known as the Green Lungs of Chennai, enabling it to conduct night-sky observation comparatively easily which is otherwise difficult amidst the glaring city lights in the night.

[3] In April 2013, the Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre (TNSTC) announced its plan of setting up a 'Space Gallery' at a cost of ₹ 6 million in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

[7] In 2009, the planetarium established the 360-degree sky theatre, the first in India,[8] with the installation of a full-dome mirror projection system with a DLP projector.

The planetarium building features a circumferential hall of fame around the main theatre with portraits and statues of scientists and photographs and models of various heavenly bodies, celestial phenomena and space missions.

In 2009, the U.S. Consulate at Chennai donated portraits of Neil Armstrong, Sunita Williams and Kalpana Chawla for display in the hall of fame to commemorate increasing Indo-U.S. space ties.

There is a seminar hall and a classroom studio at the planetarium, where discussions and workshops are conducted by eminent personalities in the field of astronomy.

Under Part II Scheme for the year 2011–2012, the state government has sanctioned an amount of ₹ 1.5 million for the modernisation of the planetarium by providing six-segment multimedia projection system.

The DRDO gallery will have a covered area of 5,000 sq ft built in the existing building, with additional open space made available for large life-size models and exhibits.

It was also exhibit a model of a specialised clothing designed by DRDO, used by the Indian soldiers deployed at Siachen Glacier as protection against freezing temperatures.

The project which served the planetarium ever since its inception was a slide projector made in Japan that uses 35-mm film rolls.

[16] In 2019, a center established a new facility named “Science on a Sphere” (SOS), developed by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States, to serve as an educational tool to illustrate the Earth from various perspectives such as agriculture, forest, ocean temperature, and climate.