The US Air Force Academy in Colorado reopened the base's planetarium for the first time in 15 years, with a pre-opening show on Saturday (2 March) from popular scientist Steve Spangler.

Spangler, who famously first went viral with a video showing how Mentos and Diet Coke create an eruption in the bottle, presented a family friendly show with sparks of electricity, exploding bubbles and giant rings of smoke for visitors.

The planetarium fully opened yesterday (4 March) and will now have a daily run of shows combining projection technology and immersive surround sound to create a unique experience for visitors at the military training base.

The shows will be a mixture of student shows and those for the public, all of which are free of charge.

Topics covered at shows will include black holes, the Aurora, eclipses and moon phases, future human space exploration – in collaboration with NASA – and fighter pilots.

There are 110 seats in total with additional space for disabled access in the planetarium, which was originally closed back in 2004.

"People are really excited because the planetarium at the Air Force Academy is reopening having been closed for 15 years," said Judy Cara, project manager at the planetarium.

"It was closed in 2004 because we used to teach celestial navigation to the cadets at the Academy and things have changed, technology has changed and there was no longer a need to teach them celestial navigation.

"Now we’re reopening, we are not just going to do astronomy shows. There will be things like fighter pilots and humpback whales on offer as well."