Science First Planetarium on Seattle NSTA show

A team of Science First/STARLAB, the maker of portable planetariums right here in Nassau County Florida, just came back from a four-city tour, bringing the Universe to the show floor of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conferences. They crossed North America in their journey, and traveled the vast gulf of space with the click of a mouse.

NSTA is the largest organization of its kind in the world and has currently more than 60,000 members.

The STARLAB team started in October at the regional event in Hartford, CT, followed by exhibits in New Orleans and in Dallas, TX. The last conference in this series took place in Seattle, WA from December 8th through 10th.

Equipped with a digital STARLAB, an all-in-one portable planetarium system with a 15 ft inflatable dome, STARLAB is capable of bringing the cosmos to the trade show floor and also to the classroom.

The immersive experience of showing the nightly sky above every possible position on the globe and almost at every given date and time creates one of the greatest “WOW” factors at all of NSTA conferences. The program is driven by “Starry Night” software that is also used in large fixed dome planetariums, drives STARLAB.  .

Coincidence was that while the STARLAB team was in Seattle last weekend, a total lunar eclipse could have been observed were it not for  the sky over Seattle being completely overcast. However the simulation of the eclipse in the STARLAB dome gave the attendees of the conference a very close reflection of the real experience and was one of the highlights for many dome visitors to the Exhibition.

The STARLAB team is happy to be back home in Yulee for the Christmas Holidays, but with plans already finalized to pick up the road again in March of 2012 to the NSTA National Conference in Indianapolis for another fascinating glimpse of the universe at their fingertips.

For more information about STARLAB go to www.starlab.com; STARLAB is a product manufactured and marketed by Science First, a specialist in science education products. Find more information about this unique Company that relocated here to Yulee, Florida several years ago with the assistance of the Nassau County Economic Development Board.