You don’t have to go far to get a view of our solar system, take a guided look at the stars above, or even check out the moon. It’s all possible at the Kika Silva Pla Planetarium at Santa Fe College.

The Kika Silva Pla facility, the only planetarium in North Central Florida, opened its doors in 2006. It puts together some of its own planetarium productions with relevance to Florida skies as well as unique musical planetarium creation attuned to the stars.

Planetarium director James C. Albury is in love with his job, and as he himself describes it, he “spends a lot of time in the dark.” He loves to sit down, kick back and decide “whether to fly to Neptune or Saturn.”

Albury is the driving force behind one of the planetarium’s main events, an immersive journey of sight and sound based on Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite “The Planets.” The planetarium uses its sound system and state of the art simulation software to give people a chance to land on Mercury or fly through the canyons on Mars while enjoying the music.

“I decided to make the show because it was very popular,” Albury said. “We made a simulation of every planet and do it from the sun outwards. It allowed me to express what I have been visualizing in my head ever since I listened to the Planets as a teenager.”

“The Planets” isn’t all the planetarium has to offer. Other shows include “Florida Skies,”

“Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon” and another 360 presentation with music from Led Zeppelin.

When a special sky event takes place, the planetarium also jumps into the fray as it did for a partial solar eclipse that occurred in October, even providing partial solar eclipse viewers to protect the eyes of those who looked up. They partnered with the Alachua County Astronomy Club, which provided most of the volunteers for that event.

“We love sharing science,” said Richard Hennig, a professor and associate director of the Quantum Theory Project at UF. “Astronomy is the easiest thing to share. This was also nice because it was a daytime event and lots of people come.”

Tina Fields showed up because she thinks astronomy is “fascinating and I wanted to see the eclipse in real time.”

The planetarium may be one of Gainesville’s best kept secrets.

“You don’t hear much about the planetarium, even though it’s been here for 17 years, Albury acknowledges. “Fortunately, schoolchildren visit. We see about 7,000 schoolchildren each year. Not just from Gainesville, but also from Marion, Gilchrist, Putnam, and other counties. Then their parents learn about the planetarium and come by on the weekend.”

The planetarium came into being through a donation made by John Pla and his wife Amy Howard, on behalf of the Pla family, to recognize his mother, Kika Silva Pla. Additional financial support came from a special federal appropriation arranged by Congressman Cliff Stearns.

In keeping with the December holidays, Albury will give the public a special offering at the planetarium on Saturday, Dec.16 with three different shows on the calendar: a family 360 music experience for the holidays, “Let it Snow,” a special tribute to the Winter Solstice, and “Expedition Reef,” an all-digital underseas adventure. The planetarium will then close until early January for Santa Fe’s winter break.

Prices for regular planetarium shows are $7 for adults and $5 for seniors, active military, UF students and children aged 4-12. Admission is free for children under 3 and Santa Fe students,

faculty, staff and retirees. The Music 360 cosmic concerts are $12 for all.