The Pacific Planetarium Association is a non-profit organization with members mostly from planetariums in the western states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington.

Upcoming PPA events:

• 31 January 2020 at 3:30 pm PST (23:30 UT). Planetarians' Zoom Seminar.
  Emily Peavy will give a presentation and lead discussion on this topic:
  Perceived Education and Entertainment Value in Live and Pre-recorded Planetarium Programs. It is an age-old (albeit confounding) debate about the relative merits of live and pre-recorded programs. Throw in contrasting views about education versus entertainment goals under the dome and you may have thoroughly confounded the discussion. In this seminar, Emily Peavy casts some light and clarity on the issues in telling about a research project that she described in the latest issue of the Planetarian. See and hear her views and research results in this live seminar! Emily is Planetarium Technician and Support Facilitator, Imiloa Astronomy Center, Hilo Hawai`i.
• 28 February 2020 at 2 pm PST (10 pm UT) Planetarians' Zoom Seminar
  Dr. Luisa Rebull and Geoff Holt will give a presentation and lead discussion on
  NITARP: Astronomy Research Experience for Astronomy Educators. NITARP (NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program) aims to give educators first-hand experience doing authentic astronomy research. Planetarians who have participated in the program have described it as an amazing professional development experience that has had major impacts on their teaching. The director of the program, Dr. Luisa Rebull, will give an overview of the program and provide details on when and how to apply, and planetarian, Geoff Holt, will share his recent experience participating on a NITARP research team in 2019. About the presenters: Dr. Luisa Rebull is NITARP Director, Caltech, Pasadena, California. Geoff Holt is Planetarium Director, Madison Metropolitan School District Planetarium, Madison, Wisconsin.
• Planetarians' Zoom Seminars (PZSs) are usually on the last Friday of the month at 3:30 pm Pacific, 4:30 pm Mountain, 5:30 pm Central, 6:30 pm Eastern. They are recorded and archived. For connection URL, see the PPA Connect to Zoom Seminars page.
• WAC 2020 in Casper Wyoming: July 29 to August 1.

The Pacific Planetarium Association would like to acknowledge the life and legacy of Dale Etheridge, founding member of the PPA, who has passed on, but remains with us in memory.

PPA is an affiliate of International Planetarium Society.
PPA is also one of the planetarium societies in the Western Alliance Conferences.

For questions about this site email Alan Gould <adgould@comcast.net>