The Pacific Planetarium Association (PPA) is a non-profit organization with members mostly from planetariums in the western states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington.
Our mission is to facilitate communication and cooperation among members of the planetarium community to help them provide the very best services to their respective communities in science literacy, arts & humanities awareness, and understanding of our universe.
Upcoming PPA events:
2025 Planetarians' Zoom Seminars (PZSs) are usually on the last Friday of the month. They are recorded and archived on the Seminar Archive page. For connection URL, see the Seminar Connection page. See Seminar Schedule page for full descriptions. .
2025 Feb 28 at 11am PST (2pm EST, 19:00 UT). How Can Keep Them Engaged When They’re Eight Meters Away? A large dome can be a challenge if you’re trying to get the audience participating. Join April Whitt as she shares her own ideas and tips and invites you to share yours.
2025 Mar 28 at 11am PDT (2pm EDT, 19:00 UT). The Sun's Fury: Celebrating Solar Maximum at The Lawrence Planetarium. Ellen Torres Thompson. describes Lawrence's latest interactive program, an adventure through solar cycles, the electromagnetic spectrum, and space weather.
2025 Apr 25 at 11am PDT (2pm EDT, 19:00 UT). Caves in Domes … and Other Geoscience in Digital Planetariums. Ka Chun Yu relates the shared history of space and Earth science visualizations, what geoscience education actually entails, and why fulldome theaters are especially suited to take audiences on tours of their home planet.
2025 May 30. Astronomy for Peace/Planetariums for Peace led by Ken Brandt. Astronomy for peace has already worked in several conflict zones around the world. Planetariums for peace is a recent addition with plans to do a simultaneous domecast across many theaters world wide.
Announcements:
See recordings of past Planetarians' Zoom Seminar on the Seminar Archive page. Latest: Explore a Universe of Data with OpenSpace led by Micah Acinapura and Alex Bock.
NASA Resource Page for Planetariums - updated 03/14/23
The Pointer, a PPA magazine published from 1968 t0 1970, will be appearing on this site's Publications page. The first six issues are available now.
IDEA Committee statement.
You can now make DONATIONS to PPA. See below.
Support the PPA!
You may support PPA projects, including the Mini Grant program, by contributing with credit card, debit card, or Paypal using this Donate button:
Alternatively, send a check made out to Pacific Planetarium Association to Alan Gould, PPA Treasurer, 1256 Spruce St, Berkeley CA 94709 .
To become a PPA member, see the PPA Membership page.
The Pacific Planetarium Association pay tribute to the lives and legacies of dear members who have passed on, but remain with us in memory: Don Warren (1999), Charles Hagar (2013), Lonny Baker (2015), Dale Etheridge (2019), Mike Bennett (2021), and Steve Craig (2021).
PPA is an affiliate of the International Planetarium Society. Recordings of recent IPS virtual conferences are on the IPS youtube channel.
PPA is also one of the associations in the Western Alliance Conference of Planetarium Associations (WAC—Western Alliance Conference).
PPA youtube channel: youtube.com/@ppadomes