Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal

The UNAM/AMT Mobile Planetarium: Lessons learnt on how to run a student-driven mobile planetarium project in Africa (page 43)
Honsbein, H., Backes, M., Duvenhage, Z., Matthaei, H-W., Namene, Q. D., Frans, L., Macucule, F., Shilunga, S., Falcke, H., Kasai, E., Wolt, M. K., Schut, A., Pierik, M., Katjaita, H., Iiyambo, E., Nakafingo, V., and Simasiku, N.

The UNAM/AMT Mobile Planetarium travels to Namibian schools and presents live astronomy shows, introducing school children to astronomy and science in general. Mobile planetariums face a host of specific challenges, especially logistical ones. Moreover, very few planetariums are situated in the Global South (International Planetarium Society, n.d.), where documentation (e.g., Carlson, 2020; Olivier, 2014) on them is limited, mainly focusing only on stationary planetariums in Africa and, in most cases, are not easily accessible. Here, we detail the challenges faced and share our lessons learnt in an African context, particularly revolving around the use of student volunteers as the backbone of the project. We will also contribute insights into how to deal with vastly different school environments. The logistical issues and lessons discussed here span the mobile planetarium’s electricity requirements, how to manage heat build-up in the dome, and how to deal with the lack of large indoor spaces that our mobile planetarium usually requires. We additionally discuss the challenges around funding for the project. The work presented here was adopted and adapted as a scaled version of the successful NOVA Mobile Planetarium Project in the Netherlands (e.g., Holt, 2022; NOVA, 2023), noting that Namibia provides a very different outreach setting. In summary, a solid logistical and organisational basis is invaluable, as well as seamless teamwork and the right approach to secure future sponsors for the mobile planetarium project.

Suggested Citation (APA)
Honsbein, H., Backes, M., Duvenhage, Z., Matthaei, H-W., Namene, Q. D., Frans, L., Macucule, F., Shilunga, S., Falcke, H., Kasai, E., Wolt, M. K., Schut, A., Pierik, M., Katjaita, H., Iiyambo, E., Nakafingo, V., and Simasiku, N. (2023). The UNAM/AMT Mobile Planetarium: Lessons learnt on how to run a student-driven mobile planetarium project in Africa. Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal, 33, 43-51. https://www.capjournal.org/issues/33/33_43.pdf