SANTA ANA : For Heaven’s Sake! Mobile Planetarium

It may have been midday, but Hahn Le, 10, glimpsed the night sky in striking clarity on Wednesday. He was inside a special, mobile planetarium that will soon be visiting classrooms countywide.

During her 20-minute visit inside the giant tent-like dome, she gasped as constellations swirled above her and comets streaked across the ceiling.

“It looks like you’re on the moon and seeing everything in space,” Hahn said after the show. “It was fantastic.”

Hahn was one of about two-dozen fifth-grade students at Monte Vista Elementary School Wednesday who crawled into the inflatable, portable planetarium known as “Starlab.”

As part of a program sponsored by the Discovery Science Center, the 12-foot-tall dome will offer students throughout the Santa Ana Unified School District an opportunity to learn about the heavens in a dynamic way.

The program is being funded with a $64,000 grant from the Toyota USA Foundation. Schools outside the district may use the planetarium for a fee of $3.50 per student, said Karen Johnson, spokeswoman for the Science Center.

During the show on Wednesday, students crawled through a short tunnel into the main viewing room of the planetarium. Huddled in darkness, they peered upward, waiting for stars to appear. Moments later, entire constellations swirled and danced before their eyes and the children gasped in unison.

“Whoa, this is so cool!” someone exclaimed in the darkness.

Dee Chester, an Air Force Auxiliary education officer, guided the children on a tour of the heavens, which began with conditions that simulated local nighttime skies. She showed how light pollution from cities interferes with our view by keeping a dim bulb turned on; it obscured all but the brightest stars and the moon.

Then, she turned it off to simulate conditions found in the mountains away from cities, and 4,000 stars of the night sky burst into view.