There is now a planetarium that can be taken to schools across Guelph and Wellington County.
Royal City Science and the department of physics at the University of Guelph unveiled a portable planetarium on Monday.
The planetarium is a seven-metre inflatable dome with a built-in projection system.
Orbax Thomas, co-founder of Royal City Science, said this will make it possible to bring the stars anywhere in the region at any time.
“Being able to bring something like this to people instead of having to have those people come to you, being able to take this schools, being able to take this to public events and being able to take this as a piece of outreach is a huge thing for us,” Thomas said.
Thomas said the portable planetarium will reach thousands of young people and hopefully inspire them into careers in the sciences.
He said it’s also great for those who can’t get to see the wonders of the stars hovering over a night sky.
The unit was paid for through a donation from the estate of Jim Stevens that was matched by the Canadian Space Agency youth STEM initiatives.
Joanne O’Meara, also a co-founder at Royal City Science. said the funding from the space agency helps add credibility to the project.
“This sort of is a stamp of approval of what we’re trying to do and reach students, not necessarily in huge urban areas of the province but we’re able to reach people in Waterloo-Wellington and further communities,” O’Meara said.
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The team will educate people about Canadian space missions, with a particular emphasis on the Canadian Space Agency’s moon exploration initiatives.
The project will also educate people on the Lunar Gateway Station “Artemis II” mission and the discoveries made by the James Webb Space Telescope.
In addition, there will be customized programming developed to introduce people to Indigenous moon and star lore teachings, teaming First Nations night sky knowledge with Western astronomy.
Thomas said that by taking this mobile unit to schools and public events, he hopes it will get more people interested in science.
“We live in a region where there is a whole bunch of science-based industry, of a science-based interest as well,” he said.
“And being able to bring something like this to a school and to show young people, ‘Look, this isn’t coming from somewhere far away, this is coming from your community.’ I personally think it’s an inspiration to be able to say this is something that’s here, it’s where I live, and maybe that’s something that drives people to be more interested in it.”
To learn more about the planetarium and when the next expedition will be in your community, head to the royalcityscience.ca website.