Seminar Schedule

Upcoming Planetarians' Zoom Seminars

2026

Dates and times subject to alteration depending on availability of presenters.

2026 Feb 27 at 2pm PST (5pm EST, 22:00 UTC), Behind the Scenes with Blender-based Visualization at NSF NOIRLab with Ron Proctor. Ron will give a technical overview of a few NSF NOIRLab visualizations, along with a brief overview of the resources available for free at noirlab.edu. NSF (National Science Foundation) NOIRLab is the US national center for ground-based, nighttime optical astronomy. Ron Proctor is a Motion Graphics Designer with NSF NOIRLab, with over two decades of experience in the planetarium industry. Ron has directed and produced a number of planetarium films and visualizations with Weber State University's Ott Planetarium, Salt Lake County's Clark Planetarium, NSF NOIRLab, and Proctor Creative. His most recent productions are Messengers of Time and Space--a planetarium show that explains how telescopes like Rubin and Gemini work together--and Dark Universe--a short fil m that explores Kitt Peak National Observatory's connections to dark matter and dark energy. Both films were produced at NSF NOIRLab and are available for free at noirlab.edu.

• 2026 Mar 27 at 12pm PST (3pm EST, 19:00 UTC), Planetarium Educators Workshop: Organizational Patterns with Alan Gould. The goal of this workshop is for us to become aware of different ways we can organize the planetarium experience for our planetarium guests. A simple didactic approach may be all that's possible and effective for recorded programs. Explore how we can interact with our audiences in other ways, thinking about advantages and disadvantages of each strategy, and sharing actual planetarium activities that exemplify those strategies. This is Part 3 in the Planetarium Educators Workshop series that began last July and is derived from the Planetarium Educators Workshop Guide. Workshop facilitator is Alan Gould.

• 2026 Apr 24

• 2026 May 29

• 2026 Jun 26

• 2026 Jul 31, at 12pm PDT (3pm EDT, 19:00 UTC), Planetarium Educators Workshop: How the Audience Sees It. This workshop offers suggestions for 1) assessing our audiences' knowledge and reasoning abilities; 2) choosing concepts appropriate to the learning level of the audience; and 3) applying instructional techniques that are most likely to result in lasting conceptual improvements. This is Part 4 in the Planetarium Educators Workshop series that began last July and is derived from the Planetarium Educators Workshop Guide. Workshop facilitator is Alan Gould.

• 2026 Aug 28

• 2026 Sep 25

• 2026 Oct 30

• 2026 Nov 20, at 12pm PST (3pm EST, 20:00 UTC), Planetarium Educators Workshop: Questioning Strategies. The workshop goals are to introduce a scheme for classifying questions, to practice identifying types of questions, and to think of how to design intriguing sequences of questions to ask during a planetarium program. The right questions can help increase the value of our dialog with audiences. This is Part 5 in the Planetarium Educators Workshop series that began in July 2025 and is derived from the Planetarium Educators Workshop Guide. Workshop facilitator is Alan Gould.

• 2026 Dec 18