Schoolchildren have long remembered the order of the planets from the sun with the mnemonic device My Very Excellent Mother Just Spared Us from Nepotism. Discover your own outer-space decoder with today's Groupon: for $12, you get two tickets to a planetarium evening program at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vanier Park (a $24.08 value). Evening programs are held Saturdays at 7 p.m.

The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre reaches into the great unknown to pull the mysterious night sky a little closer with informative and entertaining astronomy exhibits. The evening programs include admission to a visually exhilarating multimedia show in the Planetarium Star Theatre. Delve into mind-scramblers such as the birth of stars, the age of the universe, and what came first, the chicken or the asteroid, in 360-degree panoramic glory. Also included in the program is admission to the microlecture "Hot Topics," which tackles the latest developments in all things astro. The observatory caps an awe-inspiring evening with a sky-watching session, during which patrons play connect-the-dots with the constellations and discover space's heavenly imitations of spoons, hunters, and South American tapirs on jet skis.