News

2026 Anniversaries

Mon, 9 Mar 2026 18:39:00 GMT

2026 Anniversaries

40th
June, Foundation of the Italian Friends of Planetariums Association (transformed into PLANit in 2009)

50th
Albert Einstein Planetarium, Washington, DC, USA
Davis Planetarium, Baltimore, MD, USA
The Muse Planetarium, Knoxville, TN, USA
Planetario Max Schreier, La Paz, Bolivia
Planetario Nundehui, Oaxaca, Mexico
Roth Planetarium, Chico, CA, USA
Wiley Planetarium, Cleveland, MS, USA
York Learning Center Planetarium, York, PA, USA

60th
Besser Museum Planetarium, Alpena, MI, USA
Casper Planetarium, Casper, WY, USA
Eugenides Foundation Planetarium, Athens, Greece
MMSD Planetarium, Madison, WI, USA
Manfred Olson Planetarium, Milwaukee, WI, USA
The Planetarium at The Bishop, Bradenton, FL, USA
Robinson Planetarium, Adrian, MI, USA
Strickler Planetarium, Bourbonnais, IL, USA
Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium, Buffalo, NY, USA

70th
Andrus Planetarium, Yonkers, NY, USA
Argus Planetarium, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Kursk Regional Planetarium, Kursk, Russia
Norris Corson Family Planetarium, Waterloo, IA, USA

80th
Wayne State University Planetarium, Detroit, MI, USA

90th
Rosicrucian Planetarium, San Jose, CA, USA

100th
18 July, Zeiss-Planetarium, Jena, Germany

2028 Conference Host Announced

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 01:19:00 GMT

Thank you to our 2028 conference bid teams for presenting their final proposals this week at the IPS Board meeting.

We extend our sincere appreciation to Planetario Galileo Galilei (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Mystic Seaport Museum, Treworgy Planetarium (Mystic, USA) for the thought, effort, and dedication that went into preparing these outstanding bids. Your commitment to hosting the IPS community is truly valued.

After two incredible presentations, we are pleased to share that Planetario Galileo Galilei (Buenos Aires, Argentina), was selected as the Conference 2028 host!

Stay tuned for more details on the IPS 2028 Conference, coming soon.

Big News from Loch Ness Productions

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 05:00:00 GMT

****** THE BIG NEWS:

Effective 30 June 2025, we're closing down the customer-facing side
of Loch Ness Productions. After 48 years in the dome trade, Mark and
Carolyn Collins Petersen have decided it's time to retire. We're both
in our 70s now, and looking forward to some relaxation in the
remaining years we have ahead of us.

****** SO HOW DOES THIS AFFECT YOU?

Until 30 June, we will continue with business as usual. The clock is
ticking, however, so send those purchase orders soon!

After that, LNP shows will continue to be available from the reseller
partners listed on our website. We just won't be handling those
orders ourselves any more.

Licenses will remain valid for LNP shows that you may have.

We thank you for helping share our explorations of the universe with
your audiences. Our shows have played in hundreds of domes worldwide,
and reached millions of people. And from our part of the show
distribution business, we've provided our producer partners more than
a million dollars in show license sales income. Yay!

****** WHAT ABOUT FULLDOME OnDemand?

We will be turning over the operation of FULLDOME OnDemand to the
good folks at ePlanetarium. They have been with us since nearly the
beginning, and already have the second-largest number of shows on our
streaming service (from the Houston Museum of Natural Science). They
regularly recommend FULLDOME OnDemand to their Discovery Dome
customers, for both the fisheye and spherical mirror systems they
sell. With Web programmers and office staff on hand, they are the
natural choice for keeping FULLDOME OnDemand running.

Since we began FULLDOME OnDemand in 2015, we have streamed thousands
of shows to hundreds of domes around the world. And we've provided
our producer partners more than $120,000 (and counting) from show
rental fees, creating a new income stream that didn't exist before we
started it. More Yay!

****** BACK TO THE FUTURE:

After 1 July, Loch Ness Productions will transition to become a
holding company for receiving the income and royalties from our
intellectual properties -- our planetarium shows, Mark's music, and
Carolyn's writing. While our copyrights won't expire until 70 years
after we do, in this digital age, our works may live on practically "forever".

In essence, we're returning to our roots -- music for Mark and
writing for Carolyn.

We thank you for your years of supporting our endeavors, and wish you
prosperity for the future. We hope you'll do the same for us!

The Nessies -- Mark and Carolyn Collins Petersen

Centennial Live-Stream Recording

Thu, 5 Jun 2025 01:57:00 GMT

May 7, 2025, marked a truly historic moment, the 100th birthday of planetariums, and we couldn’t have asked for a more inspiring celebration.

To everyone who joined us in honoring this incredible milestone: thank you. Whether you tuned in to the live-stream, organized a local event, shared your stories on social media, or simply took a moment to look up at the night sky, your participation helped make this centennial feel like a truly global celebration.

A special thank-you goes out to the volunteers, organizers, and contributors who made the live-stream possible. From content submissions and video recordings to behind-the-scenes coordination, this event was a true team effort — and we’re grateful for your dedication.

If you missed the live event or want to revisit the experience, the full recording is now available to watch anytime.

We also encourage you to explore the incredible moments being shared around the world. Search the hashtag #Planetarium100 on social media to see how planetarians, educators, science centers, and communities came together to mark this occasion.

From all of us, thank you for helping us celebrate a century of curiosity, inspiration, and exploration under the dome. Here's to the next 100 years of wonder.

IEEE Spectrum News includes history of Planetarium

Tue, 21 May 2024 17:45:00 GMT

Link to the article: https://spectrum.ieee.org/planetarium-history

IEEE Spectrum News includes history of Planetarium

Tue, 21 May 2024 17:45:00 GMT

Link to the article: https://spectrum.ieee.org/planetarium-history

Winners of 2023 Week Initiative

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:30:00 GMT

Week with the GDP Winners

WINNER: Rafael K. Kimura, Planetário da Unipampa, Bagé/RS, Brazil
HOST: Stefan Harnisch, Technische Leitung, Jena, Germany

WINNER: Dário Fonseca, Hemispherium - UC Exploratório - Centro Ciência Viva da Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
HOST: Anna Green, Stiftung Planetarium, Berlin, Germany

Week in the United States Winner

WINNER: Alfiah Rizky Diana Putri, ITERA Lampung Astronomical Observatory and Department of Atmospheric and Planetary Science of Sumatera Institute of Technology, Lampung, Indonesia
HOST: Derek Demeter, Emil Buehler Perpetual Trust Planetarium, Sanford, Florida

2023 Winner of Pages of Stars

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:28:00 GMT

First Place: Phaethon’s Ride by Ovid by Anthony Liggins. A unique rendition of the well known classical Greek legend of Phaethon.

Second Place: Humanity's Endless Dialogue with the Stars by Nadia Lam. An original presentation exploring mankind’s universal connection with the celestial sphere.

Third Place: Dancing Skies: A Celestial Ballet by Rosa Ashley. An original poem celebrating the essence of the beauty and wonder of the universe.

Honorable Mention: A Celtic New Year by Mark Grimley. An exploration of the ancient Celtic celebration of Samhain (Sa-o-win), the beginning of the new year.

Centennial Trailer available

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 16:35:00 GMT

A video trailer for the Centennial is already available on Youtube and on our website.

In addition, also a fulldome format trailer was produced by artist Rocco Helmchen, financed by IPS.

The fulldome trailer was first shown at the Brno fulldome festival in June 2022, and is now available and free to use by planetariums and other fulldome venues.

Additional language versions would allow more communities to view this trailer in their native language.

If you want to create a version of the fulldome trailer in your language, you can find the narration text and the audio without narration, as a basis for your own language version, here:

DOME Version

FLAT Full HD Version

If you can create a version of the trailer in your language, we would also like to make it available here on the Centennial website – so please let us know about your language version!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJV-uY7iETV-d3emuI10li2_p4pI2zPEF

Happy 100 Years

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 05:21:00 GMT

The sky was brought down to earth in October 1923 when the first planetarium projector was unveiled in Jena, Germany. Today, planetariums reveal the secrets of the universe – they are a gateway to space; they inform and inspire by creating audiovisual worlds of experience.

IPS Sound Survey

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 12:39:00 GMT

Sound Experience Survey: Fulldome and Planetariums

The IPS Immersive Sound Committee in collaboration with IMERSA is conducting a sound experience survey to help the fulldome and planetarium communities grow better awareness of the current state of audio production workflow, presentation, and distribution in domes.

With these surveys, we hope to better understand people’s sonic creative experience within the fulldome and planetarium communities to guide new initiatives within the International Planetarium Society (IPS), IMERSA, and beyond.

We will use the answers of the survey to build a state of the industry report that we hope will help guide future conversations and developments in the industry.

Our Goal is to help identify challenges and propose a series of solutions to address:

The importance of sound in fulldome productions.
Workflows and technological solutions for audio creators and engineers.
Workflows and technological solutions for planetarium system design, program delivery, show production, and education.
Methods of audio distribution and delivery.
Helps us take action to improve our audio experience culture with consideration for new immersive audio formats.

Surveys:

NOTE TO OUR MULTI-HATTED COMMUNITY - You may be in one or more categories. There are four different forms. Please choose the one that best suits your perceived role in fulldome audio. If you feel you fit into multiple roles you are welcome to fill out multiple surveys.

Form Categories:

Audio Creators and Engineers (Anyone who is a part of the creation process of fulldome audio content. This includes audio producers, audio engineers, composers, sound designers, etc.)
Fulldome and Planetarium Technical Operators Survey (Anyone who holds a knowledgeable role in a planetarium or other fulldome environment and can respond to inquiries about the sound and audio systems involved in the running and distributing audio content in their domes)
Facility Decision Makers (Anyone who has a role that provides them oversight in decision making processes for audio installs in fulldome or planetarium spaces)
Fulldome Producers (Anyone who manages the production and budget of a fulldome production)

Any identifying information received from the survey is optional and will only be seen by the survey leads and is confidential. A summary of the results will be published and posted on the IPS and IMERSA websites sometime in 2023.

“To accelerate the flow of ideas and advance our field, we need the voices of all those in the planetarium and fulldome communities to be heard. For these reasons, establishing current audio literacy and standards are vital to the mission and success of the International Planetarium Society, IMERSA, and to all communities that use sound.” - IPS Immersive Sound Committee

Living in Balance: Anishinaabe Star Knowledge

Fri, 4 Nov 2022 03:09:00 GMT

The Abrams Planetarium collaborated with Dr. Beth LaPensée to create a planetarium show on Anishinaabe Star Knowledge. The script and art was created by Dr. LaPensée and the show heavily features the Eastern dialect of Anishinaabemowin. It was narrated, reviewed, and approved by Anishinaabe elders and community members including Alphonse Pitawanakwat, Aarin Dokum, and Dr. Annette Lee. The show presenter has indigenous knowledge on its own and not in relation to western knowledge. Abrams Planetarium has taken the role of steward, translating indigenous created assets to the dome. We are distributing the show to planetariums who are interested. For Digistar planetariums we will provide the D6 scripts and we have a 2K video or frames for any other fulldome planetairum. If you are interested in previewing the show or getting it please email us . The show is available for free under a CC-NC license. If you need frames mailed to you on a drive there may be a small fee for processing that.

Centennial Art/Design Contest

Fri, 4 Nov 2022 03:01:00 GMT

To celebrate the Centennial, we aim to encourage the creation of digital artwork revolving around the Centennial theme! Submit your poster designs that interpret the planetarium Centennial from an artist’s perspective. The submitted contributions, or a “best of”, will then be made available to planetariums worldwide. The best poster submissions will be chosen by an IPS jury in 2023, and will be presented during the Centennial opening ceremony. The three best submissions will be awarded a prize sponsored by IPS.

Week in the US host winners

Fri, 4 Nov 2022 01:19:00 GMT

Two planetariums in the United States host a planetarium colleague from another country for A Week in the United States, an initiative that began in 2017. It is supported by IPS as an excellent opportunity for professional development and cultural exchange, and is offered under the auspices of the International Relations Committee. The two hosts for the winners are Shawn Laastch at the Versant Power Astronomy Center & Jordan Planetarium in Orono, Maine, and Adam Thanz at Bays Mountain Park and Planetarium in Kingsport, Tennessee.

For information about the Week in Us visit the following web site: https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/WeekInUSFAQ&VID=10403005

Pages of Stars

Fri, 4 Nov 2022 01:15:00 GMT

The Astronomical Observatory Serafino Zani and the Mobile Planetarium Committee are seeking submissions for the Pages of Stars competition. The goal of this competition is to build a collection of short audio clips (maximum 3-5 minutes each) that can easily be shared among planetarians using mp3 files.

For all winners, past and present, and their downloadable files go to this link.

The authors have released these materials under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Information about how to enter this contest can also be found on this page; the deadline for submissions is December 31 each year but you do not have to wait! Entries are welcome anytime during the year!

Call for 2024 IPS Awards And Fellow Nominations

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 05:00:00 GMT

Time has come to nominate people or institutions for the 2024 IPS Awards and Fellowships. The next IPS Awards and Fellows will be presented at the IPS Conference in Berlin and Jena in June 2024. The IPS Board will decide which persons or institutions nominated will be honored at the next IPS Board meeting. The decisions will be based on the Awards Committee presentations regarding each potential Awardee or Fellow candidate.

Nominations for the 2024 IPS Awards and Fellows must therefore reach the Awards Committee on time and in any case no later than the 31st of May 2023. Please send your nominations to Manos Kitsonas, Awards Committee Chair (mak@eef.edu.gr) and include the reasons why you think your nominee should be awarded or named an IPS Fellow, along with any additional information that may support the nomination.

For information about the awards committee and how to nominate for an IPS award visit the following web sites.

Awards committee information: https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/awardscom

How to nominate for an IPS award: https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/nominateForAward

Alert: Ukraine Crisis

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 22:15:00 GMT

UKRAINE CRISIS: IPS has formed a Task Force to reach out to planetarians in Ukraine to understand how they are affected by the current political situation and coordinate offers of support that become known to IPS. The Task Force is mainly composed of members of the International Development Committee and the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Currently, IPS is not aware of any Ukrainians in our profession who have been physically injured or worse, but we do know that at least one planetarium has been damaged. We are liaising between Ukrainian planetarians, IPS leadership, and others around the world. To our planetarium colleagues in Ukraine: we are contacting as many of you as possible, but meanwhile, if you see this notice, please send us a message if you can. We want to hear from you.

2021 IPS Culture and Climate Report

Wed, 2 Feb 2022 16:46:49 GMT

The recently released 2021 International Planetarium Society Culture and Climate Report showed that 76.2% of the over 200 respondents felt that IPS should be taking on the role of promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in the field. The full report can be found at https://www.tinyurl.com/IPSCCSFullReport or through the IPS EDI Committee website at www.ips-planetarium.org/equity .

Planetarian Michael Bennett passed away October 22

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 05:52:34 GMT

Astronomical Society of the Pacific has a tribute to Mike Bennett.

You can also hear some great stories from him in the recording of the PPA old-timer's get-together - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t33co1bRTZQ&t=5s.

Calling all Planetarians…This is the Starry Sky Calling.… Come in….

Tue, 6 Jul 2021 19:30:00 GMT

Calling all Planetarians. . . This is the Starry Sky Calling. . . Come in. . .
The Stars Needs your Help!

You’re invited to attend SATCON-2

I’d like to invite all interested planetarians to attend the upcoming SATCON-2 Online Conference. It will be held soon, this coming July 12 to July 16. It’s free and you can chose which sessions are of interest to you, though I’ll point you to the Wednesday the 14th sessions on community engagement, where groups like the IPS will be able to meet other peer communities.

Why Should we Care about Satellite Constellations?

Humans have been launching satellites into Earth orbit since the 1950s, but we are now witnessing a new era as skies rapidly fill with many thousands of communication satellites in large “constellations”, resulting in significant and potentially devastating impacts on all aspects of astronomy and the human and natural experience of space and the night sky, from the simplest naked-eye stargazing to the most advanced professional observations. Sixty years after Sputnik, there were roughly 2,000 operating satellites in orbit around the Earth; within the next decade alone, that number may jump to as high as 100,000 or more. Large satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) reflect enough sunlight that many of those are visible to the naked eye during at least some part of their lifetime in orbit. Their sheer numbers and brightnesses threaten to change the night sky forever. The impacts extend to radio frequencies as well, since satellites transmit in the 10-30 GHz spectrum in bands used for astronomical observations.

There is little international oversight or consensus on sustainable strategies for the use of orbital space, leading to a first-come-first-claim “gold rush” in an increasingly commercialized near-Earth space environment. Satellite constellations are part of a larger revolution in space activity as countries and corporations move to explore, colonize, and occupy the Moon, Mars and near-Earth space. Space is a global commons that is nonetheless being increasingly used by and for private interests, with consequences for many constituencies across the globe.

What Can Planetariums Do?

We can do a lot. We can help educate our audiences about the challenges and threats posed by the SATCONs. Planetarians are uniquely capable of helping visualize LEO satellites. And we are known for developing shows that take a broader perspective on human cultures and their relationship with the sky. But there is probably much more.

This is why the SATCON working group of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) would like to enlist your help. I’ve been appointed by the AAS and the IPS to develop a long-term planetarium working group. I’ve had conversations with several of our colleagues already who are ready to help. But, there may be more ideas and we’re keen to listen to everyone’s perspectives. Here’s the plan I offer to you.

Attend the SATCON-2 meeting, at least in part, to educate yourself. There’s a fair amount of disinformation surrounding the satellite constellations. This conference is the best way to get the most accurate and timely information both from the professional astronomers studying the situation, but also from the satellite operators like SpaceX too. You’ll also hear from groups representing many other concerned constituencies, such as Native Americans, the American Association of Variable Star Observers, and the Sierra Club.
After the meeting I will then distribute a survey to IPS members to get your points of view and input. In that survey I will also indicate a way that you can volunteer to be on the IPS’s SATCON Working Group.
We will then convene the group and take up the task we’re called upon for. I think the first order of business will be for us to draft a response to the SATCON workshop that includes both a position statement, but also an action plan if one is needed. I will work to see that our reactions as planetarians find their way into the final report.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I suspect that we will want to report on this for the August virtual conference too.

Keep Looking to the Stars!

Jim Sweitzer
j.sweitzer@icloud.com

Additionally here is a survey for astrophotographers:
https://forms.gle/Ao7SoxV1khxyoG7j8

Jena | Berlin to Host IPS2024

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 14:51:39 GMT

On behalf of the Officers and Board of IPS, thank you for your participation in IPS activities, and in particular, for the time and effort spent on the bidding to host the 2024 global conference. We are pleased to announce the venue for IPS2024 was decided at the Board meetings held on June 19th and 20th-21st, 2021.

The successful bid and venue for IPS2024 will be Jena | Berlin, Germany.

Thank you to the IPS2024 bidders for their valuable time and substantial effort, conducted with such enthusiasm. In particular, we would like to thank them for their polite and positive response to the newly introduced "CONFERENCE SITE ASSESSMENT TOOLKIT" when bidding for IPS2024. This is the first time this documentation has been used, and we are encouraged by the excellent results from this work.

As President, I would like to say that both bid presentations were outstanding and the final discussion was difficult for everyone involved.

The focus of the discussion was as follows: To consider the results of the feedback form from our IPS members, the proposed conference site feedback submitted by the EDI Committee, the clarity of the conference bids, new initiatives, accessibility from overseas locations, response to language challenges, and vendor perspectives. All these, and other related details, were given close attention.

Finally, I would like to thank the bidders for their time and effort. It is very much appreciated by the IPS Officers and Board members.

All the best,

Kaoru Kimura
IPS President

Warning: Phishing Scheme Under a False Email of the IPS President

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 14:16:34 GMT

ATTENTION: Please be aware of scam phishing emails with the subject line "Request" that appear to be coming from the IPS President, but with the wrong email address. The official email address used by IPS is [title]@ips-planetarium.org. Please be sure to look at the email address of your incoming mail to ensure it is from the correct person. If you do not recognize the email address, we advise you to ignore.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact IPS Director of Operations, Jennie Benjamins.

International Expert in the Planetarium Field Has Edmonton City Road Named after Him

Thu, 4 Mar 2021 20:54:52 GMT

One of the key figures in the Planetarium community throughout the world, will have a road named in his honour. The access road to the Queen Elizabeth II Planetarium, in Coronation Park, will be renamed Ian McLennan Way.

The Queen Elizabeth II Planetarium (QEP) will be reopening in 2021. The planetarium has the distinction of being the first public planetarium in Canada, when it originally opened on September 22, 1960, and has been declared an historic site by the City of Edmonton.

Last Thursday, City Council approved the renaming of the road to Ian McLennan Way. Ian was the first director of the planetarium, and now an international expert in the planetarium field.

Click here to learn more.

A 2021 New Year gift from Creative Planet

Wed, 6 Jan 2021 03:36:24 GMT

Creative Planet has given us a 2021 New Year gift: package of free fulldome assets, scenography from their movie - Magic Globe.

Planetarium History Facebook Group

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 18:18:15 GMT

The Planetarium History Facebook Group is a private Facebook group about preserving our shared History about the development of Planetariums and its people. It is intended for postings about planetarium upgrades, closings, retirements, job openings, equipment, projectors, pictures (both old and new), and anything else that will help us preserve our often over looked heritage. It's about planetariums current and past, the shows they presented, and how we got where we are today. A place to go to share historical information and interesting stories about planetariums that we have enjoyed visiting or worked at.