The past 10 days we’ve been away, attending a meeting of planetarium and space theater folk, held in Valencia, Spain. It was a 24/7 experience for nearly everybody. We showed a planetarium show during the event, as did several other colleagues, and of course attended paper sessions and demonstrations throughout the week. It was a very jam-packed meeting and now that we’re back and getting over jet lag, we’re mulling over the many new things and fine points we learned while there.

The venue was the Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias in Valencia, a huge science center complex that is still partially under construction. It’s an amazing place and pictures just do not do justice to the immense size and space it takes up.

I found it gratifying to see such a wonderful area put to use as a science center, and to see so many people visiting it each day. As best I understand it, interest in science has undergone a renaissance in Spain in the decades since Francisco Franco’s death in 1975. Science centers like this one, and those in Sevilla, La Coruña, and other Spanish cities are one result of this increased interest in the sciences.
More than 350 planetarium professionals and their families from 57 countries attended the meeting, setting the stage for some wonderful international discussions about science outreach and presentations. It’s amazing to me that we all speak so many languages yet all have a common interest in science, especially astronomy and space science, to unite us. It made the luncheons and dinners and coffee breaks into some great experiences.