The leadership and staff of the Ritter Planetarium at the University of Toledo are excited to host the 55th annual conference of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA). The conference dates are Wednesday, October 23 through Saturday, October 26, 2019.

The conference will be held at the University of Toledo and at the Park Inn by Radisson in downtown Toledo, Ohio.

This year we will continue the practice, first started last year at Michigan State University, to extend the conference into late Saturday afternoon. We hope this will allow slightly more free time for fellowship, to visit poster papers, and to chat with our sponsors.

Wednesday’s events (including the opening reception) will be held at the Park Inn Hotel. Most of Thursday’s activities will be on the University of Toledo campus, at the Ritter Planetarium and in the nearby Student Union. Friday we are back at the hotel, and Saturday we end at the University of Toledo.

We have a great line-up of guest speakers. GLPA’s own Gary Tomlinson will deliver the Spitz Lecture at the banquet. Other speakers include Shannon Schmoll from Abrams Planetarium who will present the annual Astronomy Update. Jessica Garcia from the University of Michigan will give a talk on diversity and inclusive education. Robert Dempsey, a
NASA flight director, will talk about his experiences as an ISS Flight Director and his preparations for the BoeingSpaceX Starline launch scheduled for later this year. Finally, Karen Bjorkman, from the University of Toledo, will give a talk on the role of ground-based telescopes in the era of space-based telescopes.