At the heart of what makes Digistar so valuable to our operators is how easy content sharing and collaboration is within both the software itself, and the Digistar community more broadly.

The nearly 3,000 unique content items on the Digistar Cloud, consistently updated since the feature's introduction in 2014, are an essential part of our planetarium experience - it provides Digistar planetariums around the globe with instant access to content that make audience experiences more inspiring and more educational.

The introduction of completely updated Domecasting capabilities in 2026 makes that sharing and collaboration more impactful than ever. On August 5, Cosm hosted our first public domecasting events from the Experience Center dome at our Salt Lake City campus. These simultaneous live and interactive events featured guest speaker Dr. Kyle Dawson (University of Utah), a primary researcher on the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Survey. DESI is one of the largest cosmic surveys ever made and will expand the understanding of both dark energy and the expansion of the Universe.

What made Dr. Dawson's presentation unique - and what has served as the catalyst for the updated domecasting capabilities - was the opportunity for other planetariums, and their audiences, to directly interact with Dr. Dawson. More than 300 audience members from nearly a dozen domes across the United States attended the domecast. Not only were audiences able to immerse themselves inside of the fulldome DESI datasets, but each participating dome could ask questions of Dr. Dawson after the presentation. Questions ranged from the very specific to the broadly philosophical, but that a prominent astrophysicist and a public audience from around the United States could interact so seamlessly in the planetarium environment was an inspiration to many who attended.

"Having our audience interact with Dr. Dawson was wonderful," said Derek Demeter, director of the Emil Buehler Planetarium at Seminole State College in Sanford, Fla. "We are always wanting content in our dome that's live and interactive, and the domecast provided just that." More than 50 members of the Central Florida Astronomical Society in attendance that evening participated in the event, and according to Demeter, "I'm inspired to host a few future domecasts myself!"

Zachary Whitlock from New Canaan Public Schools in Connecticut had a similar experience, with the planetarium hosting nearly 60 visitors for the domecast. "Being part of the DESI Domecast was a unique opportunity that we were incredibly proud to participate in. Connecting with other planetariums around the world, hearing directly from an expert involved in the research, and allowing our audience to ask questions in real-time really showcases just how far learning can go with the technology in the DOME," says Whitlock. "We're able to collaborate, share resources, and connect our community with other institutions to create meaningful learning experiences that wouldn't otherwise be possible without this technology."

More domecasts are planned for the future, hosted by both Cosm and a number of our Digistar planetariums. Work done by the INTUITIVE ® Planetarium at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center continues to push the limits of what's possible with dome data visualizations, and upcoming projects from the Michigan Science Center in Detroit aim to take domecasting into underserved rural communities via Digistar-powered mobile domes. Additionally, domecasting will be an integral tool during the American Astronomical Society's conference in January 2027, where Cosm will collaborate with research scientists, data visualization experts, and planetarium creators to share the latest news and discoveries in astronomy with the Digistar community.