UKIAH – The sun, the moon and the stars. That’s what about 100 students from Ukiah and Long Creek learned about when OMSI came to town last week.

Starlab, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s portable planetarium, was the highlight of Space Science Day at Ukiah School. More than a dozen space-related classes and activities backed up the main event, including solar system mobiles, aurora art and a Jeopardy-style science quiz bowl.

Fifty students from Long Creek, grades one through 12, mixed with the same number from Ukiah, accompanied by all the teachers from both schools. Laura Orr, the science teacher at Ukiah High School, and elementary teacher Ann Coote, planned most of the events.

The OMSI package fits into Long Creek’s fourth and fifth grade science curriculum, said Long Creek Principal Tim Sprenger. In addition, Long Creek’s new science teacher, Tiffani VanDyke, is offering an astronomy class this semester.

“We don’t get enough science,” said Ukiah Superintendent Dan Kor-ber. “When we get OMSI to bring out a program, aligned with the state curriculum, and we see kids making something, it works out real good.”

Jesse Hampton, an OMSI outreach educator, led students into the igloo-shaped planetarium. Once they had settled into the darkness, he turned on the projector in the center. Stars appeared overhead and then, as he changed the drums that fit over the machine, the constellations highlighted by Greek mythology and Native American legends.

Hampton had been on the road for two weeks, visiting schools in Arlington, Heppner, and Pilot Rock. Earlier in the week he conducted Starlab tours for students at Lincoln and West Hills Elementary School in Pendleton.

“Kids love it,” Hampton said, gesturing toward the inflated planetarium. “Especially little kids. It gets them introduced to the stars, and inspires wonder. That’s my main goal.”

The Starlab is inflated by an electric fan and held up by weak air pressure. A simple airlock at the entrance keeps the pressurized air from escaping. The structure is about 15 years old, Hampton said, and thousands of kids have gone through it.

Tiffani VanDyke, the Long Creek science teacher, thought it was great. She can’t always get her students out to look at constellations on cold winter nights, and the Starlab presents them in 3-D, she said, rather than on a flat piece of paper.

Libraries of Eastern Oregon worked with OMSI to bring the Starlab experience to schools in Eastern Oregon.