(ABC 6 News) – In honor of the upcoming total solar eclipse, The Jay C. Hormel Nature Center held a free open-house event on Saturday, featuring their inflatable StarLab planetarium.

The Cedar River Astronomy Club, open to space and astronomy lovers of all ages and skill levels, is a program of the nature center, re-established in 2023.

“We had a pretty good turnout at our last free planetarium event, so, considering this is a free event for the community, anyone who is interested in space at all, it is something that i even have memories of going into an inflatable planetarium at some point,” said Kelly Bahl, Outreach Naturalist at Jay C. Hormel Nature Center.

The inflatable event was a particularly big hit with the kids.

“I liked that there was a bunch of scenes and stuff on the ceiling,” said Claire Hooter, when asked what she enjoyed most about the event.

For eclipse day on Monday, the Hormel Nature Center will host a special viewing of the eclipse, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Guests can view the eclipse safely through a solar-filtered telescope, and the center will have have protective eclipse glasses, space-themed arts and crafts, and a livestream of the eclipse.

The Nature Center’s Sola Fide Observatory south of Austin is still closed to the public until their spring open house on April 27 and will not host any eclipse events, with events instead being hosted at the center located at 1304 21st St NE.