Seminar Schedule

Upcoming Planetarians' Zoom Seminars

2026

• 2026 Jan 30 at 11am PST (2pm EST, 19:00 UTC), The Cosmos Must Be Searchable: Advertising Planetarium Programming in the Age of AI and Algorithms with Shanil Virani. We now live in a world where AI answers the questions people once typed into Google, and where visibility is no longer automatic but something we must intentionally design. For many planetarium educators, especially those wearing many hats or working solo, navigating the world of SEO, Facebook Pixel, sponsored posts, and digital discoverability can feel overwhelming… and exhausting. This seminar is your beginner-friendly guide to making your planetarium programming findable—whether by search engines, social media, or large language models like ChatGPT and Perplexity. I’ll share what I’ve had to learn while running the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s digital ad campaigns (despite that not being my formal job!), including pragmatic tools, hard-won lessons, and low-effort strategies that actually work. Whether you’re wondering why your content doesn’t show up in search, or what it takes to boost your reach without breaking the bank, this is your survival guide to the age of AI-powered discovery—and how to ensure the cosmic stories you tell in your dome can still be found. Shanil Virani is the Cosmic Engagement Specialist at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, where he leads initiatives focused on emerging technologies—AI, VR, smart telescopes—and curates immersive, student-centered workshops on astronomy education and cultural sky traditions for both formal and informal educators. A professional astronomer and veteran science communicator, Shanil has taught for more than 30 years at both the high school and university levels. He also hosts the Our Island Universe podcast and writes regularly on Medium about astronomy, emerging technologies, and the role of science in public life—always with the goal of helping science be seen, heard, and remembered in a noisy digital world. 

• 2026 Feb 27 at 2pm PST (5pm EST, 22:00 UTC), Behind the scenes with Blender-based 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.

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

• 2026 Mar 27 at 12pm PST (3pm EST, 19:00 UTC), Planetarium Educators Workshop: Organizational Patterns. 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 PST (3pm EST, 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, 19:00 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.

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• 2026 Dec 18