See Planetarium Audience Engagement Strategies (PAES)
A Planetarium Is…
…a hemispherical domed theater in which images of any sort can be projected on the inside of the dome. They’re great in astronomy for showing objects in the sky as they appear any time of night, any day of the year, from any place on Earth.
If you are lucky, your town or one near you has a planetarium that you can visit. To find and visit the nearest one to you, search a worldwide directory of planetariums such as:
- planetariums-database.org/ or the
- International Planetarium Society (IPS) public directory
Goto Mercury planetarium projector
at The Lawrence Hall of Science, circa 1978.
The unveiling of the very first planetarium projector was in Jena, Germany in October 1923. It opened to the public with the Deutsches Museum opened in Munich, Germany on May 7, 1925. Centennial celebrations of the invention of the planetarium: 2023–2025. See also the January 2024 issue of the journal Communicating Astronomy with the Public.
A planisphere is a type of star map that is adjustable to show the sky any time of night and any night of the year. In that sense it’s sort of like a hand held planetarium. See Star Maps.
Audience Participation Planetarium Programs
Holt Planetarium at Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS), University of California Berkeley (UCB) was built in 1973 under the direction of Alan Friedman to develop planetarium shows with a novel audience participation style. In the summer of 1978 LHS held five National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded workshops—POP (Participatory Oriented Planetariums)—with 100 planetarium educators.
The POP workshops resulted in a publication, Planetarium Educators Workshop Guide (IPS Special Report #10).
In the summers of 1989-94, LHS recruited a total of 150 participants for six NSF funded Summer Institutes in Astronomy and Space Science Education for Elementary and Middle Schools. The project was POPS—Participatory Oriented Planetariums for Schools).
The participants/graduates of those institutes conducted in-service workshops in their school districts using an expanded Planetarium Educators Workshop Guide: a series of 12 volumes – Planetarium Activities for Student Success (PASS). Because the audience participation techniques work in both public shows and school shows, the name PASS was changed to Planetarium Activities for Successful Shows. PASS programs are not like pre-recorded products that are simply load-and-play. The PASS programs are more akin to classroom activities consisting of a written sample narrative as a guide for live presentation, media (still images and movies), materials and preparation (if needed).
With the advent and widespread proliferation of digital planetariums at the beginning of this millennium, the LHS team found that the audience participation principle is as valuable as ever.
Planetarium Audience Engagement Strategies (PAES)
Most of these were developed in pre-digital years (1973-2005) but remain good examples of audience participation strategies.
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
INDEX
- Planetarium Educators Workshop Guide
- Activities for the School Planetarium
- Resources
- A Manual for Using Portable Planetariums
PLANETARIUM PROGRAMS: - Constellations Tonight
- Red Planet Mars
- Moons of the Solar System
- Colors From Space
- How Big Is The Universe?
- Who Discovered America?
- Native American Astronomy
- Stonehenge
- Northern Lights
- Our Very Own Star
- Strange Planets
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 1: Planetarium Educators Workshop Guide
Cover | Contents | Acknowledgments | Introduction
Vol. 1 Appendices
- A Getting a Workshop Together
- B Workshop and Institute Participants
- C An Annotated Bibliography
- D [has become PASS Volumes 5 and 6; or see original appendix D]
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 2: Activities for the School Planetarium
Book Cover | Contents | Acknowledgments
Introduction by Gerald Mallon -|- Introduction by Alan Friedman
About Planetarium Activities
Grades K–2
Grades 3–5
- Light And The Eye
- How Do The Stars Appear To Move
- Plotting The Paths Of Meteors
- Measuring The Brightness Of Stars
Grades 6–9
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 3: Resources for Teaching Astronomy and Space Science
… was a collection of resources from the 1980s, pretty much hopelessly out of date.
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 4:
A Manual for Using Portable Planetariums
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 5: Constellations Tonight
(originally in Appendix of Volume 1)
Cover | copyright | contents | introduction | discover more | acknowledgements
Materials-maps | materials-lights | map masters | script tips | media list | using the script
Media: zipped media1 | zipped media 2
Show script activities: find Polaris | sky map activity | making up constellations | big dipper versions | motion of stars | conclusion
Classroom Activities:
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 6: Red Planet Mars
(originally in Appendix of Volume 1)
Cover | copyright | contents | introduction | discover more | acknowledgements
Materials | drawingsheet | media list | setup | using the script
Media: still images, fuzzy mars movie, movies 1–3, valles marineris movie
Show script activities: find red stars | find mars | telescope views | draw mars | lowell | orbit views | surface views | hst | exobiology | sci-fi martian | modern exploration
Classroom Activities:
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 7: Moons of the Solar Systems
Cover | copyright | contents | intro | discover more | acknowledgements
Materials | materials1 | materials2 | media list | using the script | setup
Media: still images | Movies: moon phases | lunar eclipse | solar eclipse | galilean moons | tour1 | tour2 | tour3 | tour4 | tour5 |
tour-pluto1 | tour-pluto2
Show script activities: observe and explain phases | telescope view | galilean moons | tour of moons
Classroom Activities:
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 11: Native American Astronomy
(originally Astronomy of the Americas)
Media: Still images
Show Activities:
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 13: Northern Lights
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index
Volume 14: Our Very Own Star
Volume 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – PAES Index