cosmic classrooms” should not be regarded as a separate, threatened community, but rather as trusted voices for the protection of the night sky.
We are now approaching the 100th anniversary of the first modern planetarium, in Munich, Germany. Today, planetariums number 4000 worldwide in nearly 90 countries. They include fixed and portable domes with both digital systems and traditional opto-mechanical projectors. More than 1700 of the planetariums are now digitally fulldome capable. The advantage of fulldome video systems is that they can display either real-time simulations or pre-rendered videos of virtually anything that can be visualized for a hemisphere. Displaying simulations of artificial satellites and showing their impact should be a straightforward task for contemporary planetariums.
Aside from their technical capabilities and broad geographic reach, planetariums connect with larger in-person astronomical audiences than any other mode by nearly two orders of magnitude. Current pre-COVID estimates top out at over 100 million global planetarium attendees per year. In contrast, a quarter of a million students are enrolled in American introductory astronomy courses. Planetariums also reach a truly international audience with programs in their native language. And unlike online media, planetarium experiences generally include contact with real astronomers, educators and experts. For much of the world, planetarians are the face of astronomy.
5.2. Assessing satellite constellation impacts in planetariums
Along with their worldwide distribution and ability to reach large audiences, planetariums also offer four programmatic and technical opportunities and one organizational bonus for the community concerned about the impact of satellite constellations.
- The technical capabilities of planetariums allow them to share visualizations that accurately illustrate satellite constellations. What better way to understand the problem than to see and compare for oneself? Planetarians have been teaching children and adults to identify constellations in the night sky for nearly a century. Simulating the challenge of light pollution has long been a staple of planetariums. Augmenting that natural sky with a new set of realistic-looking, artificial lights in motion is a straightforward task for planetariums.
- Planetariums are natural venues to celebrate the many cultural dimensions of humanity’s relationship with the night sky. They regularly present programming that addresses celestial practices and beliefs of diverse cultures today, as well as the traditional views of the past. This practice of featuring indigenous storytelling and culturally-rooted star shows and sky traditions is well developed in many planetariums. These programs have proven to be among the most popular with audiences. Planetariums offer a familiar and trusted venue to celebrate our common heritage and respect for the dark night sky. The planetarium world also realizes it must go beyond traditional approaches to cultural stories and instead become places for giving people and groups a chance to speak for themselves. The yearly Live Interactive Planetarium Symposium (LIPS) meetings are a natural forum for engendering such programs.
- During the fulldome digital planetarium revolution of the past twenty years, ambitious shows have been developed with sophisticated visualizations able to tackle subjects that would never
