The meeting had a full agenda over the two days including visits to the local stadium and the Blue Penguin sanctuary. It was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with other planetarium operators from around the region and see how they were transitioning out of the COVID restrictions.
The APS meeting was held on the 25-26 July 2022 in Dunedin at Otago Museum. The gathering is part of a series of meetings held worldwide by regional planetarium societies that fits under the International Planetarium Society. Representatives from throughout New Zealand’s various planetariums were there as well as a number who had come over from Australia. There was also an online component to the meeting. We attended the meeting as members of the APS and as planetarium operators.
There were industry representatives from planetarium software and dome providers including a presentation by COSM on some of their latest developments. The APS approved Otago Museum’s application to bid for the IPS meeting in 2028. This is a huge event and will attract many overseas visitors and will be an excellent chance for New Zealand to showcase its planetarium and science communication efforts to the world.
Hari presented on the making of the planetarium movie The Navigators – Nga Tohunga Whakatere which was funded by Tuia 250 and produced in Wellington. Hari was the creative mastermind behind the movie and she talked about some of the challenges on putting the movie together.
