2025-08-29 Chat

Cosmic Creations! 

Choices & Challenges in Crafting a Planetarium Show 

with Bob Bonadurer and Terry Spears

Video LINK

Below you can find a list of attendees, a copy of the chat, and an AI summary for Bob and Terry's talk.

To see a description and schedule of all upcoming Planetarians' Zoom Seminars, visit

https://www.ppadomes.org/events/online-seminars/pzs-schedule

Date and time for the next seminar:

An Ancient Place for Skyscapes - Creating Immersive Experiences with Stellarium with Daniel Brown

2025 Sep 26 at 11am PDT (2pm EDT, 18:00 UT)

Below

• Attendees

• Chat

• AI-generated Summary

Attendees

1. (Co-host) Rosemary Walling, Marie Drake Planetarium, Juneau, AK

2. (Co-host) Alan Gould, Berkeley CA USA

3. Bob & Terry Milwaukee WI

4. Jeff Nee, Pasadena, CA

5. Mary Holt, The Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, CA

6. Nick Strobel, Bakersfield CA

7. April Whitt, Atlanta, Georgia

8. Adam Thanz - Retired from Bays Mountain Planetarium

9. Krista Testin, Omaha, NE

10. Léon Snyman - Bloemfontein, South Africa

11. Jeffrey Bout, from Groningen, the Netherlands. I work at the Artis planetarium in Amsterdam

12. Amie Gallagher, Raritan Valley Community College Planetarium, Branchburg, NJ

13. Kate Dellenbusch from Bowling Green State University in Ohio

14. Rich Neefe, Beazley Planetarium, Portsmouth, VA

15. Sara Schultz: Sara Schultz, MN State Moorhead

16. Rebecca Doiron - Springfield MA

17. Karl von Ahnen, Santa Cruz Mts., California

18. Scott Oldfield-Smith Planetarium Vandalia Ohio, (Kenny Perkins old place)

19. Becca Chubb-Way, Calgary AB, Canada

20. Kate Dellenbusch from Bowling Green State University in Ohio

21. Rich Neefe, Beazley Planetarium, Portsmouth, VA

22. Cal Powell, Alexandria, VA

23. Carole Holmberg

24. and a few more

Chat

(Perhaps subtract about 30 minutes from the timestamps here to align better with the video timestamps.)

00:44:22 Sara Schultz: Because you can and you do it well!!

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "Because you can and ..." with 👍

00:48:35 Sara Schultz: Because I have a cool thing I want to share

00:48:43 Alan Gould: It's fun to make a show,

00:48:47 Jeff Nee: To engage and inspire the next generation of explorers!

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "To engage and inspir..." with 👍

00:48:49 Sara Schultz: To bring variety to our offerings

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "To bring variety to ..." with 👍

00:48:54 April Whitt: Standards have changed and the grade level needs a different program.

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "Standards have chang..." with 👍

00:49:01 Rebecca D: It's fun / increase visitation by relating it to other exhibits!

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "It's fun to make a s..." with 👍

00:49:15 Amie Gallagher: I see a need that isn't met elsewhere, or is too expensive to buy

00:49:15 Nick Strobel: I want to make a show about exoplanets but the current shows are over a decade old

00:49:16 Rosemary Walling, PPA: Something about our local area and sky

00:49:20 Mary Holt: Guests like to see new shows occasionally

00:49:26 Adam Thanz: No funds to purchase a program and the local community appreciates the local talent.

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "No funds to purchase..." with 👍

00:49:52 oldfield: Because I'm so good at it

00:49:54 Karl von Ahnen: inspire people to go out and look at the stars

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "inspire people togo ..." with 👍

00:50:03 Jeffrey: Instead I would like to make a live show. The audience loves them, more then fulldome films

00:50:27 Jeffrey: (we also buy films)

00:51:28 Richard Neefe: I believe it is 100% of my visitors go out and look at the sky!

• Mary Holt: Reacted to "I believe it is 100%..." with 😮

00:51:36 April Whitt: The entire known universe.

00:52:55 Nick Strobel: With neutrinos, a lot of the content goes in one ear and out the other. 🙂

• Sara Schultz: Reacted to "With neutrinos, a lo..." with 😂

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "With neutrinos, a lo..." with 😂

00:53:05 April Whitt: Our audiences enjoyed it.

00:53:43 Sara Schultz: My students are obsessed with this show

00:54:52 Amie Gallagher: JWST science for kids

00:54:53 April Whitt: Moon phases

00:54:53 Sara Schultz: Astronomy in Chile

00:54:55 Kate Dellenbusch, BGSU: Fulldome visuals to pair with special events such as live music performances and poetry readings

00:55:09 Nick Strobel: Exoplanets

00:55:10 Adam Thanz: Vera Rubin Observatory and history of Vera

00:55:13 Jeff Nee: I'm totally going to take Alan's old Searching for Other Earths and do a whole show about the Exoplanet Watch Citizen Science program!

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "I'm totally going to..." with 👍

00:55:20 Mariette Erwee: Solar System Extremes

00:55:24 Richard Neefe: Renewable Energy - Wind Turbine project being built in the Atlantic Ocean

00:55:24 Mary Holt: Satellites

00:55:31 Alan Gould: For school standards, a full dome rendition of things that determine how seasons work

00:55:36 oldfield: the 84 transit of Earth as viewed from Mars

00:55:50 Becca C-W (she/her): one about black holes, one about Pluto

00:56:23 Karl von Ahnen: Phases of the moon

00:56:34 Carole Holmberg: wizard of oz

00:56:50 Richard Neefe: The Path of Venus in the Sky - over the 8 yr period, how Myans charted it.  How other cultures knew this knowledge.

00:56:59 Rosemary Walling, PPA: Glaciers

• Richard Neefe: Replying to "Glaciers": How they are flooding her town

• Rosemary Walling, PPA: Replying to "Glaciers": Indeed!

• Mary Holt: Reacted to "How they are floodin..." with 😥

00:57:14 oldfield: 8 yr

• Richard Neefe: Replying to "8 yr": Sorry - yes - 8 yr cycle for Venus

00:57:17 Adam Thanz: I personally wanted to make a full-dome broadway musical.

00:57:47 Alan Gould: what's it like to be in a hurricane?

• Adam Thanz: Replying to "what's it like to be...": Watch Marooned

00:58:18 Jeff Nee: The Hamilton Musical has a 360 treatment:

https://youtu.be/k9AyO8h2I0k?si=f9rodPV_zL5bNCmv

• Becca C-W (she/her): Reacted to "The Hamilton Musical..." with 😯

00:58:33 Nick Strobel: Be down with gravity!

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "Be down with gravity..." with 👍

00:59:05 Mary Holt: Gotta run, I'll watch the rest as the recording! Thanks, y'all!

01:00:53 Alan Gould: electric cars

01:02:00 Carole Holmberg: There's no place like home.

01:02:47 Adam Thanz: Puppies in Space…

01:02:58 April Whitt: Kitten FRitters

01:03:01 Nick Strobel: Searching for Earth 2.0

01:04:06 April Whitt: The Man Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain.

01:04:18 Richard Neefe: I loved:  DinoSOARS title — perfect for the story

01:04:32 oldfield: The Last Eclipse

01:04:41 Amie Gallagher: What's up, Webb?

01:04:51 Jeff Nee: Exploring Exoplanets!

01:04:52 April Whitt: What, What?

01:04:58 April Whitt: Wait, What?

01:04:58 Mariette Erwee: Stars in her Eyes  - for a show about Women in Astronomy

01:05:05 Alan Gould: Target Earth (our title for death of dinosaurs show)

01:05:58 Kate Dellenbusch, BGSU: Starlit Stanzas: Creative Poetry Writing Under the Dome

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "Starlit Stanzas: Cre..." with 👍

01:06:35 April Whitt: Cat videos are more popular than puppies. Hence Kitten Fritters.

01:06:41 April Whitt: Sounds like The Last Question.

01:07:04 Rosemary Walling, PPA: Life with Glaciers

01:07:50 Jeff Nee: Oh, the last eclipse is such a great concept of a show!  You could easily turn this 4 minute video into a whole show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7mVQ3kRPv8

• Rebecca D: Reacted to "Oh, the last eclipse..." with 👏

• oldfield: Reacted to "Oh, the last eclip..." with 👍

01:07:53 Karl von Ahnen: It’s all in the stars!

01:11:39 Rosemary Walling, PPA: I get ideas from headlines in astronomy websites and magazines, so I’d probably steal one to make a show about.

01:13:51 April Whitt: From Jeff Nee

• Jeff Nee: Reacted to "From Jeff Nee" with 😂

01:14:28 Richard Neefe: Edutainment — I think many shows for my Children’s Museum - is entertainment forward…. With sneak in the education.

01:17:38 April Whitt: The play was in Atlanta a few years ago, and the cast came to the observatory at Fernbank to see “real astronomers” ;)

01:18:06 Krista Testin: wow! can I see your preview version of silent skies! I am just starting to work with our theater department for presenting it in our dome.

01:18:53 April Whitt: Ken Moore

01:19:03 Jeffrey: Got to go, I will see the recording later.

01:24:39 Jeff Nee: AI

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "AI" with 👏

01:25:27 Rosemary Walling, PPA: which AI program do you use?

01:25:59 Nick Strobel: But not “too many notes” in the music

01:26:38 Nick Strobel: They’ll be happy to generate new purchases for you

01:27:10 Jeff Nee: 360cities

01:28:15 Rebecca D: https://prefrontalcortex.de/en/projects/dome-tools/  This is a really cool tool that could help with the production of a show, it's a free virtual dome that you can throw what you're working on up to get a reference of how your show actually looks!

• Rosemary Walling, PPA: Replying to "https://prefrontalco...": That sounds interesting. I have not heard of it before. Thank you.

01:28:22 Adam Thanz: We used art students from a local university to create art. I then used Motion to create a complete full-dome program.

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "We used art students..." with 👍

01:29:44 Alan Gould: Here's the IPS page - https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/fulldomemasters

• Rebecca D: Reacted to "Here's the IPS page ..." with 👍

01:30:54 Sara Schultz: YAY students!!!!!!

01:31:03 Sara Schultz: Experiential learning!

01:36:28 jon elvert: Also...NASA's Universe of Learning has AstroPix.org for free astro images, video, search tools, metadata, files and more, all updated regularly.

01:37:42 Alan Gould: IPS free audio page - https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/audio

01:37:48 Richard Neefe: Music makes the show

01:38:44 Adam Thanz: AI can never replace the emotional content from local talent.

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "AI can never replace..." with 👍

01:39:25 Richard Neefe: AI can never land a Dad joke like a human!

01:40:00 Adam Thanz: I have a pain running down the diodes on my left side…

01:40:40 April Whitt: When we’ve done school programs in the past, we’ve used older children from the local school as narrators. The teachers send us their “best readers” and it’s worked well.

• Richard Neefe: Reacted to "When we’ve done scho..." with 👍

• Sara Schultz: Reacted to "When we’ve done scho..." with 👍

01:40:52 Karl von Ahnen: Got to go. Thank you. This was fun!

01:41:23 Amie Gallagher: Thanks Bob and Terry!

01:41:24 April Whitt: Excellent program. Thanks.

01:42:06 Carole Holmberg: Carole Holmberg, Rock Hill, SC

01:42:14 jon elvert: Great session!! Jon Elvert Richmond, Virginia

01:42:23 oldfield: Thanks everyone!

01:43:44 Rosemary Walling, PPA: Bob's YouTube channel has full length previews: https://www.youtube.com/@GLPA2011

01:46:53 Richard Neefe: The Open Space seminar discussed exporting

01:51:51 Richard Neefe: Teenage Guide to the Galaxy! — it really can be made with today’s kids.  With the low cost cameras and Blender - great content can be created. Teens like to see themselves. —— Tik Tok

01:54:05 Richard Neefe: I see a NASA shirt on high school kids - every time I visit a high school

• Richard Neefe: Replying to "I see a NASA shirt o...": Kids - are curious and want to know

01:56:16 Nick Strobel: They were participating with each other but not with you. 🙂

01:57:18 Sara Schultz: THANK YOU so much for sharing all this!  So helpful!  I am rejuvenated and excited to get going on some custom programming here!  And excited to get my students started playing with these resources!!  FANTASTIC!! ❤ 

AI-generated Summary

This AI-generated summary has not been edited for accuracy nor does not replace watching the full video. If you find any incorrect or misleading information in the AI summaries, you can let us know. Our contact information is here.

Overview

This seminar featured Bob Bonajour and Terry Spears from the Milwaukee Public Museum discussing the process of creating planetarium shows. They shared insights on their current and upcoming projects, including their new planetarium facility opening in 2027, and provided practical advice on creating full dome content. The presenters guided participants through the decision-making process of show creation, from identifying needs and topics to selecting titles and finding resources for content development.

Key Concepts or Theories:

• Full dome video production techniques and technologies

• Decision-making framework for planetarium show development

• Resource acquisition strategies for planetarium content

• Marketing and audience engagement approaches

Important Questions Raised:

• How can planetariums create engaging content with limited budgets?

• What resources are available for creating full dome content?

• How can planetariums attract specific demographics, particularly teenagers?

• What is the future of AI in planetarium show production?

Key Takeaways and Summary of Learning Objectives

• Creating planetarium shows involves numerous decisions about content, format, and presentation

• Modern technology has made full dome video production more accessible and affordable

• There are many free and low-cost resources available for planetarium content creation

• Audience needs and interests should drive show development decisions

• Collaboration with students, local talent, and other institutions can enhance content creation

Topic 1: Planetarium Show Development Process

The presenters outlined a structured approach to creating planetarium shows, beginning with identifying the need or reason for creating a show. This could include addressing curriculum standards, responding to audience requests, creating content for special exhibits, or simply wanting to share something interesting. After establishing the need, creators should determine the topic and develop an engaging title that will attract audiences. Bob emphasized the importance of titles as first impressions that set expectations and compete for attention in today's information-rich environment. The presenters shared examples of their own shows, including "Did an Asteroid Really Kill the Dinosaurs?" and "Spooky Skies," demonstrating how they've approached different topics and audiences. They also discussed the importance of considering the target audience when developing content, noting that their shows tend to be family-oriented to accommodate their typical audience demographic.

Relevant Q&A

Alan: How much difference does a creative title make versus a descriptive one? 

Bob: It's hard to measure the effectiveness of titles specifically, but topic selection (like dinosaurs or aliens) often drives attendance regardless of title.

Jeff: How do you create a title that's accurate, engaging, and attractive without giving people false expectations? 

Bob: It's a challenge, but you can use a catchy title as an opportunity to "sneak education" into what audiences might expect to be purely entertainment.

Topic 2: Resources and Technologies for Content Creation

The seminar provided extensive information about technologies and resources for creating full dome content. Terry discussed their evolution from using expensive cameras with fisheye lenses to more affordable 360-degree cameras like the Insta360 Pro 2 and the newer X5. These cameras, costing under $1,000, can produce high-quality 8K footage that works well in dome environments. The presenters also shared footage from a drone-mounted 360 camera, demonstrating how this technology enables dramatic flyover shots for planetarium shows. Beyond filming original content, they highlighted numerous resources for acquiring full dome content, including ESO, NASA, NSF, NOAA, and the International Planetarium Society (IPS). They mentioned websites like Polyhaven for free HDRI images and 3D models, and discussed using Blender (free 3D software) to create custom animations. For music, they recommended APM for professional-quality licensed music, though they acknowledged its cost (over $1,000 for nonprofit use), and mentioned free alternatives like soundimage.org.

Relevant Q&A

Rosemary: What about clips with animation? I know there's Blender models, but I wouldn't know what to do with one. 

Bob: We'll show you how to mess with Blender.

Adam: We used art students from a local university to create art for our shows. Each student did a different story, creating artwork in layers that I then animated using Motion. 

Bob: That's how Terry got started here - as a student at the local college when we hired him as an independent animator.

Topic 3: Future Trends and Challenges

The presenters discussed emerging trends and challenges in planetarium show production, including the growing role of artificial intelligence. They demonstrated how AI image generation tools like Microsoft Copilot can create full dome visuals with simple prompts, though they expressed both fascination and concern about AI's implications for the industry. Bob joked about potentially asking AI to create an entire 20-minute show on exoplanets, complete with narration and music. The seminar also addressed the challenge of attracting specific demographics, particularly teenagers, to planetariums. Participants discussed various approaches, including incorporating popular culture references, adopting social media formats like TikTok's quick-paced style, and involving students in content creation. Jeff emphasized that teenagers shouldn't be treated as a monolith and suggested conducting market research to understand their interests. The presenters also touched on the future of planetarium technology, mentioning LED domes as a potential direction for the industry.

Relevant Q&A

Rosemary: Do you have ideas for shows that would appeal to high school students? Something that would draw them in? 

Jeff: Treating all teenagers the same is as faulty as treating all adults the same. The proper approach is to do market research - what do they want to see? What are they interested in?

Richard: We used your "Teenager's Guide to the Galaxy" show and having teenagers present the material in a teenager way really hits well with our audience. 

Bob: That was a really fun experience, having them come with their ideas, making it real for them.

Suggestions

• Explore free resources like ESO, Polyhaven, and NASA's 3D model library

• Consider collaborating with local students or artists to create content

• Try using Blender for creating custom 3D animations for dome shows

• Look into affordable 360-degree cameras for creating original full dome content

Supplemental Resources and Readings

• NASA's 360-video collection: https://informal.jpl.nasa.gov/museum/360-video

• Bob's YouTube channel with full-length previews: https://www.youtube.com/@GLPA2011

• IPS full dome resources: https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/fulldomemasters

• IPS free audio page: https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/audio

• Prefrontal Cortex Dome Tools: https://prefrontalcortex.de/en/projects/dome-tools/ (free virtual dome for previewing content)

• NASA's Universe of Learning: AstroPix.org for free astronomy images and videos

• Polyhaven: Free HDRI images, 3D models, and textures

• 360cities: Website with panoramic images (special accounts available for schools)