SUNY Oneonta Graduate Student Presents Self-Produced Planetarium Show at International Conference

Ben Lake, from Victor, N.Y., recently presented his original planetarium show, Cultures in the Cosmos, at the Digistar Users Group (DUG) 2025 Conference, held Sept. 15-19 at the Birmingham Museum in Birmingham, England.

"We got to hear presentations about things we could do inside the planetarium," said Lake. "It was honestly just a good showcase of what people can do inside planetariums. That was my key takeaway-seeing a planetarium is not just a place to look at stars. It's a place that's a fancier theater where you can have it be educational or entertaining in a variety of different ways."

Lake, who is enrolled in SUNY Oneonta's Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies, M.A., is currently interning at the SUNY Oneonta Planetarium, where he develops educational programming and presents shows to the public. Cultures in the Cosmos explores constellation traditions from three world cultures: a Native American tribe, the Hawaiian Star Lines and Imperial China, highlighting how societies around the globe interpret the night sky.

At the international conference, Lake showcased the Hawaiian portion of the show to an audience of planetarium professionals using the same Digistar software. His presentation received positive feedback from peers and experts, including representatives from major institutions such as the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Cultures in the Cosmos is also available on the Digistar cloud database, allowing other planetariums with access to show Lake's program.

"It's a 35-minute movie total," said Lake. "It's what we show every Saturday now at 10:30 p.m. in the SUNY Oneonta Planetarium. I think it's not only a good cultural showcase to show that there are different perspectives from around the world, but it's also a good constellation show in general."

After Lake graduates in the spring, he plans to pursue an education role that involves what he loves most about Museum Studies: interacting with the public. His long-term goal is to transition into an education director role, where he'll be able to actively communicate with school districts and other groups to help identify their individual education needs, meet them where they are and help elevate their students' learning experiences.

To help offset the cost of traveling, Lake received funding from the SUNY Oneonta Student Travel for Excellence Program (STEP) Academic Fund and the Caroline '67 and David D'Antonio Student Travel for Excellence Fund.