​Parallel Session 9: Communicating Distributed Infrastructure
Wednesday 10 April 14:15​ - 16:00​

ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and operates three of the most advanced and most productive observatories in the world. With the telescopes being located on the other side of the world, in the Chilean Atacama Desert, far away from the supporting taxpayers of the 16 European Member States, it is a challenge to keep the public engaged in our mission.​ 

The opening of the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre next to the ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany, was a big step forward to make the European community aware and proud of their astronomical achievements. By sharing the fascinating world of astronomy and ESO, the centre's vision is to inspire coming generations to appreciate and understand the Universe around us. The centre provides school classes and families with an unforgettable learning experience, where even the most abstract and distant topics in astronomy and physics are explained and visualised in an innovative way.

While the centre attracts visitors from all over central Europe, taxpayers from more distant member states hardly ever make it into the ESO Supernova. As such, ESO made its visitor centre the world's first open-source planetarium and shared visuals, texts and materials generated for the centre with both the general public and astronomy science communicators. The extensive content of its exhibition, a range of its captivating planetarium shows, and many more high-quality outreach materials are available online for reuse under a Creative Commons 4.0 license. 

Both those interested in astronomy and professionals working in science centres can use this high quality material to educate themselves, use it in their own exhibition or even to start an exhibition from scratch. 

The talk presents the idea behind the open-source planetarium, the different types of material ESO created and released, and presents the archives and how to use them. You can also learn how you can contribute to this archive and which plans ESO has for the future.