A portable inflatable planetarium for Lancashire and Cumbria

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

With this Spark Award, combined with existing funding from Lancaster University, we will purchase all of the equipment for an inflatable planetarium for Lancashire and Cumbria. The planetarium will be based in Lancaster, which is ~50 miles away from the nearest existing facilities (in Liverpool and Manchester). We will use the planetarium to engage children and adults in astronomy in a variety of circumstances including school visits, local events and festivals. We expect to engage in excess of ~7,000 people per year with the facility, and >~70,000 over it's likely >~10 year lifetime. We will particularly target local schools with a high fraction of low socioeconomic status (SES) students, and local people at non-traditional STEM events.