The Best Mobile Planetarium in the East of the UK.
Starlight STEM’s 40-seat geodesic negative pressure planetarium dome is unique in the UK. Its ridged design means no tunnels, airlock or leaky zips, no need to leave disabled students out because they can’t access the planetarium. No wasting time loading and unloading the class and waiting for the dome to re-inflate. Just walk in like you would in a normal classroom. Its tall design means that students and teachers can be seated, with no risk of the projector shining in the audience’s eyes.
Starlight STEM provides the best planetarium and physics based workshops in the East of England. They believe that the best learning experience is an interactive one. All their classroom shows have a presenter that guides the audience through the show and can answer questions at the end. Their High Definition projection system uses a state-of-the-art single projector optical system designed by Immersive Adventures and is driven by professional planetarium software. Their workshops are designed to be fun, informative, creative and meet the needs of the curriculum. Starlight STEM is trusted by the Universities of Bedfordshire, Canterbury, Surrey, Royal Holloway, and Oxford.
‘Our school had the planetarium experience for two days to ensure a large range of students could participate in the experience. I was extremely impressed that the needs of each group were considered carefully so that Year 11 and 10 had a detailed and informative GCSE tailored experience with a fantastic Q and A session after and KS3 sessions were perfectly tailored to the KS3 curriculum. Mark really understands how to engage and inspire students!’
‘Our pupils massively enjoyed the Planetarium experience, many describing it as “awesome”! Right from the start, when arranging a bespoke presentation, Mark was professional, working with us to deliver just what we wanted. His enthusiasm inspired the pupils and he dealt with their questions fantastically well, putting them at ease so they could wonder and ask about many things. If you have any doubts about booking this for your students, please don’t! The learning that was gained by our pupils was easy to see. The planetarium itself is an amazing thing, especially as it’s portable and means that pupils can have a planetarium experience in their own school, for a reasonable price too. Nothing is lost by it being inflatable – it’s an awesome bit of kit! Thank you Mark for making this a wonderful experience for our pupils. Hopefully we’ll be asking you back for our activities week next year.’
‘Our three Year 5 classes each took part in the planetarium experience and all the children thoroughly enjoyed it. They were fascinated by the visual effects and the accompanying information. Their interest was really sparked and they had many great questions following the show, which Mark answered really well.’
‘The pupils in our school were all able to have the planetarium experience for a day as part of our Science week. Each experience was carefully tailored to the age of each class and as a result the children were extremely engaged. I had very positive feedback from all members of staff and the children spoke highly of their experience and I know this is something they will remember. I was also impressed with the knowledge they gained during their session. Thank you for helping to organise such an excellent experience for the children at our school.’
‘Mark from Starlight STEM Limited visited our school last week and presented the “Planetarium experience” to our three Year 5 classes. They were absolutely mesmerised by the visual effects and had an amazing time learning all about Space. At the end, they were able to ask some questions and were extremely happy to share their new knowledge. It was a great workshop and we’d definitely have Starlight STEM Limited back next year.’
‘Mark Gallaway visited the University of Surrey to deliver planetarium shows for 2 of our largest events with more that 500 people coming onto campus for Star Gazing live and Seeing the Unseen, an event to celebrate international dark matter day. He gave back to back planetarium shows touring the night sky all evening. These were exciting dives into the Universe, with fascinating facts and amazing images. Inspiring and engaging for all ages.’
‘Dr Mark visited our year 5 class armed with his pop up planetarium and workshop activities. The children have not stopped talking about it! The morning in the planetarium was amazing and a fantastic opportunity, children were asking questions left, right and centre – so were the staff! We set a project to complete after the visit and the standard of work was impressive, they were enthralled and filled with enthusiasm! We loved the opportunities in the afternoon, I don’t think I’ve heard children that excited (ever!) when they got to launch their rockets. Thank you so much for your visit and we look forward to your return next year!’
‘Starlight STEM always provide excellent service, above and beyond expectations. The planetarium is phenomenal, the best we have ever hired for our Year 9 Astronomy day, and Mark is a font of all knowledge when it comes to space science and astrophysics, often leaving students speechless with his answers to their questions. I would recommend him to any other high school who wishes to enthuse their students about space and astrophysics, you won’t regret it!’
‘Mark brought his planetarium to the Royal Holloway Science Festival in 2018 and came back after popular demand in 2019. His shows both years were absolutely brilliant and followed up by quite vivid discussions. He is up to date with all current research in astronomy and could discuss with our audience topics like the gravitational waves discovery and dark matter research. He is very passionate about his job and this is reflected throughout his entire service and conduct. We had a variety of audiences visiting the festival, families, young adults, teenagers, and they were all enchanted by the planetarium, forming large queues to be able to grab a ticket. To address this in the second year Mark was very helpful and flexible. He offered shorter timings for his shows and was happy to squeeze more performances in the day. Always professional and very well organised, an engaging communicator and a very knowledgeable presenter, he is certainly a must have in our festival and we are planning to invite him next year too!’
