IPS Portable Planetarium Committee Report 2009

The Portable Planetarium Committee is pleased to announce that the Sixth European Meeting of Itinerant Planetaria, with the leading theme: "Stars at Schools," will take place in Chorzow, Poland on 1-4 September 2009. At this meeting the latest advances in equipment and methods of teaching and spreading interest in astronomy and sciences will be presented.
http://www.chorzow2009.ajd.czest.pl/

Another major development is that the Contest for A Week in Italy has been expanded. Each year, in the spring, the Serafino Zani Astronomical Observatory (Lumezzane/Brescia) will host an American Planetarium Operator, whose native tongue is English, to work with high school students of English. In the past this contest was only available for STARLAB educators. This newly revised contest will accept applications from educators or astronomers who work with any of the various models of planetariums. (See attached document.)

There has been a remarkable resurgence of the "Home Planetarium Association". The Home Planetarium Association (HPA) is the world’s first organized group of Home Planetarium builders, collectors, and enthusiasts! Founded in the mid 90s, HPA helps keep the dream alive of having your own star theater at home through a combination of how to tips, networking, and archiving. The main supporters are Ron Walker, a film producer, (walkprod@att,net) and Gary Likert who began this group. (mrgare5050@hotmail.com) Members communicate through an electronic magazine with a readership of over two hundred or more. http://www.planetariumsathome.com/

As we look to the future we will focus on four ideas:
We will continue to promote and help facilitate low cost regional and local meetings.

As an extension of this Committee’s work we will encourage IPS to promote planetarium staff exchanges between world countries: the contest for “A Week in Italy” can serve as a good example of how to accomplish this.

We propose to produce, on CD, a collection of planetarium lessons from the “Week in Italy Contest” (1996-2009) for distribution to IPS members.

We have begun to compile an up-to-date list of portable planetarium dealers and produce a chart, which compares all the relevant attributes of each model.

In conclusion:
We can see that the trend in portable planetariums follows the stationary dome trend…more digital projectors with the same concerns for quality presentations. Using the tools of our profession effectively requires us to support research on best practices and to keep ourselves up-to-date on the current findings in science content and research.

We encourage you to contact any committee member with ideas and/or questions that you would like to share.

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Last Modified:
21 November, 2009