"Planetarium Magic" is a short story designed for the teacher to read to his/her class before visiting any planetarium for the first time. It is designed to take away a bit of the mystery that often frightens youngsters when they first enter the star theater. After all, it's definitely a unique room with it's round ceiling and strange looking equipment that is often perceived as being either robotic or alive, and then it gets dark.

We hope that by sharing this story with your children it will enhance their planetarium visit by removing some common misunderstanding and fears.

Also please note that the story is not written about a visit to Northern Stars Planetarium specifically. It is actually simplified to represent any planetarium, such as one in a museum.

"Planetarium Magic" is divided into twenty pages with the intent that there should be an illustration for each page. Our goal is to have kids do the illustrations. We will continually change the accompaning illustrations for each page as new drawings arrive, so don't feel you can't submit because you already see pictures illustrating the story. The pictures will be changing on a regular basis.

We will take the best pictures that come in to us. Be sure to tell your kids that not all their drawings will be published on the web. The number of drawings that make it will be determined by quality and the number of submissions. We will make an effort to publish at least one picture from each class that submits, but of course we cannot absolutely guarantee it (again it depends on the number of classes submitting).

Submission Guidelines:

• All Drawings must be on regular sized 8.5 by 11 inch paper (so that they will fit on our scanner!) They can be of any type of paper and colored by any medium (ink, pencil, crayon, watercolors, oils, pastels, magic markers, etc.) Be creative.
• All Submission will become the property of Northern Stars Planetarium and may be published on the internet or perhaps in book or pamphlet form.
• Please print on the back of each drawing: 1. The Page Number of the story that is being illustrated. 2. The student's first name, grade level, and school.
• We will publish only the child's first name. Please have your students sign their work with only their first name. Any artwork containing the student's last name will not be published.
• To Mail Submissions, First Contact Us By Phone at 207-453-7668

We truly look forward to recieving your student's artwork and publishing it on the internet. We hope you find this a rewarding activity. Please feel free to e-mail us with your thoughts and suggestions.