In 1923 the first star projector was commissioned in Germany, but it did not make its public debut until a year later. The first projection planetarium opened its doors at the Deutsches Museum in Munich in 1925, ushering in a new era for the public understanding of astronomy. Today, planetariums serve as dark-sky oases where everyone can learn, explore, imagine, and grow. 

The International Planetarium Society is celebrating the centennial of the planetarium [1] from 2023 to 2025. To honour this important milestone in astronomy communication, the Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal (CAPjournal) will host a special issue on planetariums worldwide. 

CAPjournal is an open-access, peer-reviewed astronomy outreach periodical jointly sponsored by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). It features articles aimed at astronomy communicators and helps to bridge the scientific astronomical community with society. We invite all planetariums, big and small, to submit an article to this special edition of CAPjournal.  

Articles for this issue might include, but are not limited to: your lessons learnt as a planetarium director; how to establish (or grow) a planetarium; how to provide a meaningful planetarium experience to blind or partially-sighted people; the role of the planetarium as a dark sky oasis; the role of the planetarium in the fight against light pollution; and much more [2]. 

Our schedule for this special edition is as follows:

• Articles should be submitted by 30 April 2023
• Article Review and Editorial Process will take place April–August 2023
• Publication in September 2023

With this edition of CAPjournal, we hope to celebrate the myriad accomplishments of the planetarium community over the last 100 years. Please follow the Submission Guidelines listed on our website, and send your full articles to capjournal@oao.iau.org with the subject “CAPjournal #33 Abstract Submission”.

More information

The IAU is the international astronomical organisation that brings together more than 12 000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries worldwide. Its mission is to promote and safeguard astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world's largest professional body for astronomers.

The IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO) is a joint project of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The mission of the OAO is to engage the public in astronomy through access to astronomical information and communication of the science of astronomy. This is implemented through a network of IAU National Outreach Coordinators (NOCs) and the IAU’s public engagement initiatives. The work of the OAO is about building bridges between the IAU and the global astronomy community of amateur astronomers, outreach professionals, educators, communicators, and the general public, and through international collaboration, to make the science of astronomy accessible to all.

Notes

[1] See the IPS Centennial of the Planetarium.

[2] For some examples of previous CAPjournal articles on planetaria, click here or here.

Links

• Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal
• CAPjournal Submission Guidelines

Contacts

Kelly Blumenthal
IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach
Managing Editor, CAPjournal
blumenthal.kelly@oao.iau.org

Lina Canas,
IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach
Editor-in-Chief, CAPjournal
lina.canas@nao.ac.jp 

Lars Lindberg Christensen
IAU Director of Communications
Cell: +1 520 461 0433/+49 173 38 72 621
Email: lars.christensen@noirlab.edu