Villalpando

ming for kids, as well as for adults.

Hessel plans to have a live talk before each showing so people can ask questions about the night sky. Shows will be hourly and range from “Back to the Moon for Good,” about our mission to return to the moon, to the Sesame Street show, “One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure.”

Because the chairs are removable, Hessel also envisions the space being used for events such as weddings or dinner parties under a climate - controlled night sky.

“We can do so many things,” he says.

The planetarium cost about $200,000 and was done in part with grants worth $260,000 from the city of Cedar Park. Some money still needs to be raised.

The planetarium isn’t as big as some of the ones you might have experienced in other cities. Hessel knows this 50-seat planet arium is not large enough. “It will look stunning,” he says, “but there will be lines for it.”

A bigger scale planetarium is still in the works, as is a bigger museum. “If we built a 300-foot planetarium, everyone says, ‘We’re done,’” Hessel says. He still wants to build a permanent facility — instead of the former indoor soccer complex where the museum is housed now — and with it the big ger planetarium.

That dream, Hessel, says is five years down the road. When that happens, this new planet arium will be able to be relocated to allow the museum to have two planetariums inside, as well as the inflat able one on the road.

Its first exhibit, “Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life,” has been extended through Nov. 8. When that closes, Hessel will be installing 30 new exhib - its, as well as removing the soccer fields and putting in regular flooring. The museum has had 35,000 visitors from all over Texas and the United States since it opened in March. Hessel expects more peo - ple to walk through the doors after the new exhibits and the planet arium open.

He wants to build a Fou- cault pendulum, which will demonstrate the motion of the Earth, and a camera obscura, a room that will be like stepping inside a pin hole camera.

It will become a full-fledged science museum with a planetarium, he says