A global demographic survey of planetarians

Abstract

Planetariums have for a century played a vital role in bringing the wonders of the night sky (and the Universe) to people of all ages. One key part of the planetarium is the people who run the shows and interact with the public, who we call “planetarians”. It is thus important to get an overview of who they are and how they operate.

In this work we report on a global demographic survey of planetarians. The aim is to provide a detailed overview of diverse profiles of the planetarians, the content they present, the ways in which they interact with the audience and how they grow in their profession. An extensive online, closed format, survey was constructed, checked for validity and distributed to planetarians worldwide, reaching 305 planetarians from 46 countries. The survey was translated into 11 languages to make it accessible to individuals who may not be confident in English. A mixed-methods approach to the analysis allowed for the exploration of the various layers and correlations between different constructs in the survey. Two overarching findings are: 1) planetarians seem to prioritise entertaining over educating; 2) planetarians seem to make no distinction between school audiences and the general public.