Students at Huntington Beach's Oak View Elementary School had a treat recently, when they were able to watch the night sky and learn about the universe, thanks to the visit of a mobile planetarium.
The SkyDome Planetarium is a product of Mobile Ed, a Michigan company, and is 15x36 feet, making it large enough to hold 90 people at each performance. The pop-up planetariums are designed to travel to schools throughout the country. Organizers of events like this could use banner printing to welcome the mobile classroom.
On the morning the SkyDome came to Huntington Beach, bright sunshine followed rain, but for the children visiting the planetarium it was night, with thousands of stars twinkling in a dark sky. Guest instructor Mario Tomic gave a series of 45-minute presentations, sharing facts with the students about eclipses, the planet Jupiter, and constellations and their names, which are often those of mythical creatures.
Tomic explained that the sun is just one of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which is only one of 100 billion galaxies. He went on to encourage the youngsters to consider a career in science, and then showed them how to locate Polaris, or North Star. He further explained that from the viewpoint of people on earth, Polaris never moves, and invited the children to try and point it out. Time after time, the students found the star successfully.
