Starry day

Marisa O’Neil

In the middle of the gymnasium at Christ Lutheran Elementary School

on Friday morning was what looked like a giant, wobbly, gray

mushroom.

The dome rose about 30 feet toward the lofty ceiling and spread 50

feet across the painted floor, with what appeared to be a super-sized

stem coming out of one side.

“Oh my goodness!” first-grader Milan Long exclaimed. “What’s

that?”

The Starlab Planetarium, a mobile, inflatable observatory -- think

bounce house without the bounce -- brought the stars indoors for the

students in preschool through the eighth grade. The inside of the

bubble made a darkened room to observe stars projected onto it.

But the outside first piqued the interest of a group of first- and

second-graders. It looked just right for poking with little fingers.

“Please do not poke my big bubble,” implored Shelton Basham of

Mobile Ed Productions, which brings the Starlab to area schools.

To enter the planetarium, most of the students crawled through a

short tunnel -- the stem -- into its dimly lighted belly, their

squeals of delight echoing off its nylon walls. First-grader Garrett

McCarthy, however, was a little skeptical about the whole thing.

“Is it fun in there?” Basham asked the children inside in an

attempt to reassure Garrett.

“Yeah!” they shouted back.

Convinced, Garrett joined them as they watched a slide show about

the solar system, narrated by an energetic Basham. As he went through

a description of each planet, he gave it a special gesture, like

pointing down for Earth and mimicking martian antennae for Mars.

By the end of the show, the children were reciting and signing all

the planets, in order, alone.

The lesson concluded with a sky full of stars projected inside the

dome, pointing out the major constellations, such as Orion. In

Orion’s armpit, Basham pointed out, sits a star with a funny name --

Betelgeuse.

“Beetlebug?” one girl wondered aloud in the darkness.

After the show, Basham lifted one edge of the planetarium and let

the students file out as the top slowly floated downward. By the time

everyone was out, the deflated mushroom lay flat on the gymnasium

floor.

“It was more fun inside,” Garrett admitted.

And slowly, the mushroom started swelling back to life.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected].