AGAWAM – On the evening of July 29 children poured into the Judith Clini Community Room in the Agawam Public Library, excited to see the stars.

Inside the room a grey, igloo-shaped planetarium called StarLab had been inflated by a fan, and filled a significant portion of the room. The portable planetarium is part of the Springfield Museums’ Classrooms On The Go program, and offers those who enter a chance to learn about astronomy.

The event was a part of the library’s free summer reading program, and offered three sessions at different times for younger children, teens, and adults. While the information may have been different in each session, each person who attended crawled single-file through the entrance to the planetarium and sat in quiet and darkness while Kevin Kopchynski showed them where to find constellations like Orion, the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, and Pisces.

Portable planetariums are useful, Kopchynski said, largely because you can use them anytime. Additionally, when stargazing inside StarLab, you don’t have to worry about weather conditions, moonlight, light pollution, or other factors that may impact one’s ability to see the stars.

“Planetariums give you the sky the way you want to see it, anytime,” he said.

Parents also sat in darkness waiting for their children and listening to Kopchynski, a planetarium and science educator with the museums, teach them about the myths behind the constellations and how they came to be. When the session was over, the kids ran out to their parents excitedly telling them all about their experience.

This excitement, Children’s Librarian Pamela Weingart said, is one of her favorite parts of events hosted by the library.

“I love seeing the happy kids. Their excitement, that’s going to stay as a memory longer than what book did you read this summer,” Weingart said. “Even though the books are great, it’s the excitement and the enthusiasm we want to go for.”

While the July 29 event was a first for the library, Weingart said they will definitely be doing StarLab again at some point in the future.

“I think it’s important to have free activities for families because things cost so much money, so by having safe, free activities it makes it more accessible, she told Reminder Publishing. “Also by having these fun things, it shows the library as a community center, as recreation, so we’re books and learning, but also personal enrichment. We want to foster life-long learning.”