9:00am – 10:00am
Welcome/Social/Coffee/Tea

10:00am – 10:30am
Orientation
Everyone Attending Workshops
Location: Dome
Hosts: Karen Klamczynski & Michael McConville
Join us for a short session in which we introduce our team members, instructors, and this year’s workshop program.

10:45am – Noon
360 Video into Digistar
Applicable to Digistar 5 and Newer
Location: Workstation Classroom
Instructors: Joe Eakin, Jason Briggs, and Mike George
Learn the many ways of manipulating and bringing 360 video into Digistar. We showcase the best practices of not only capturing 360 video but compositing, editing, color correcting, and encoding for the dome.

Controlling Theater Devices with Digistar
Applicable to 2026.0 Release and Newer
Location: Dome
Instructor: Brad Rush
Come and see how Digistar can control various theater devices through the user interface. Managed devices have controls to power up, shut down, restart, and execute remote commands. Multiple software applications can also be configured to start and stop remotely through the Digistar UI.

Lunch on Own

1:15pm – 1:45pm (plenary)
What We Do in the Domes
Applicable to All Digistar Users
Location: Dome
Instructor: Melinda Orms and Ben Buckwalter
Part secret council, part priorities discussion —your feedback drives what we build.

2:00pm – 3:15pm
Scriptapalooza Beginner friendly!
Mostly Applicable to Digistar 7 and Newer
Location: Workstation Classroom
Instructor: Karen Klamczynski
All new scripts! In addition to writing scripts together, this year the fun includes challenges to complete or “fix” broken scripts. Some scripting experience recommended, but beginners can attend and be paired with more experienced users. Some examples use D7 and beyond features, but we can discuss approaches for earlier systems. Scripting tips can also apply to all systems, so everyone can benefit.

Creating and Optimizing Large Terrain Datasets Beginner friendly!
Applicable to Digistar 6 and Newer
Location: Dome
Instructor: David Weigel
Let’s dive in together to create and collectively improve the terrain ingestion pipeline – from identifying sources to manipulating them before terrain processor and ultimately viewing them in Digistar.

3:45pm – 4:30pm (no registration required for these sessions)
Open Lab
Location: Workstation Classroom
Got work to do or ideas to test? The workstations are available. Also, Cosm Digistar experts will be on hand to chat and assist if you need help with a project.

Ask Me: Digistar Beginner friendly!
Location: Dome
Digistar software engineers will be on hand to answer your questions about Digistar software, hardware, utilities, and more . Later in the week during the conference, we will have an enhancement session where you can request new or expanded features for Digistar. This is a great time to ask questions that could help you fine tune your feature requests or discover that what you want to do is already in the system.

4:45pm – 5:45pm
Cosm Encoder Beginner friendly!
Applicable to Digistar versions 2025 and 2026
Location: Workstation Classroom
Instructor: Mike George
Learn how to use the Cosm Encoder utility and try it hands-on. Also learn how the utility is designed to complement the new mediaClass.

Troubleshooting 101 Beginner friendly!
Most Applicable to Digistar 6 and Newer
Location: Dome
Instructors: Digistar Software Team
Learn skills needed to troubleshoot technical problems with your planetarium system. We will cover common problems, common mistakes, important troubleshooting techniques, and how to counteract Murphy’s Law.

8:30–9:00
Digistar and Doughnuts
Applicable to All Versions
Enjoy some treats while chatting with the Cosm team about what you learned so far, what’s inspired you, and anything Digistar! Brief announcements at 9:00.

9:15am – 10:30am
Like the Iron Chef, but Navigation (Part 1) Beginner friendly!
Applicable to D igistar 6 and Newer
Location: Workstation Classroom
Instructor: Michael McConville and Friends
What if we give you a list of ingredients and, together, we whip up a great navigation script? If learning scripting is like learning to cook, then this workshop will make sure you are confident in the kitchen (and not afraid of the spice rack). You don’t need to take Part 2 to register for this workshop.

Unreal & Digistar
Applicable to Digistar versions 7, 2025, and 2026
Location: Dome
Instructors: Brad Rush and Mike George
Unreal is a powerful and popular 3D computer graphics game engine that is used for creating many AAA video games like Hogwarts Legacy, PUBG: Battlegrounds, and the Final Fantasy VII Remake. This engine can be used to create environments and games to display on your dome through Digistar. This workshop will introduce you to Unreal and how you can take a project from the template to the dome. As there are many resources online, this workshop will not take a deep dive into Unreal or go over game creation.

10:45am – Noon
Like the Iron Chef, but Navigation (Part 2)
Applicable to Digistar 6 and Newer
Location: Workstation Classroom
Instructor: Michael McConville and Friends
This workshop assumes we “know our way around the kitchen,” so now we’ll tackle some challenging navigation scripting and see if we can come up with a delicious dish! You do not need to have taken Part 1 if you are already confident with Nav scripting.

How’d You Do That? Beginner friendly!
Applicable to Most Systems
Location: Dome
Instructor: Karen Klamczynski
In this workshop, we’ll look at a variety of scripts and reveal how they work. Scripters with experience can guess the commands and controllers used, and we can discuss why one approach may have been chosen over another. Beginners will see there are often multiple ways to accomplish a scripting goal—and usually one is easiest. After we talk about how the scripts could have been done, we’ll see who was right by looking at the scripts and the commands used.

Lunch on Own

1:15pm – 2:00pm
Control Panel: The One You Need
Applicable to Digistar 5 and Newer
Location: Workstation Classroom
Presenter: Brad Rush
Create a control panel page with a single button that can run an entire interactive show. Whether you need simplicity for your dome operators or enjoy not having to think about technology while presenting, this workshop is for you. We’ll make that one button work efficiently, and we’ll discuss additional helpful information that can appear on the page, such as presenter notes, button-press confirmation, and info on running scripts.

From Your Mic to Your Dome: Build a Real-Time Captioning Pipeline Beginner friendly!
Applicable to Digistar 7 and Newer
Location: Dome
Presenter: Thaddeus LaCoursiere
Live planetarium shows are fast-paced, unscripted, and difficult to caption using traditional methods. This workshop explores an (in-progress!) fully self-hosted, real-time speech-to-text system built specifically for dome environments. Using locally run Whisper models, a custom Python pipeline, and UDP integration with Digistar, presenter audio is transcribed and rendered on the dome in near real time-without relying on cloud services. The workshop will focus on how the system is structured, what has worked so far, what hasn’t, and what questions remain.

2:15pm – 3:15pm
Art Re:Imagined on the Dome Beginner friendly!
Applicable to D igistar 5 and Newer
Location: Workstation Classroom
Instructor: Liz Davison and Mike George
This workshop will take dismantled pieces of artwork (provided) and use Digistar scripting and built-in features to bring it back to life on the dome. This is an introduction to how even the simplest scripting and capabilities of Digistar can add effects to non-astronomy content.

Astronomy Core Content Beginner friendly!
Applicable to D igistar 7 and Newer
Location: Dome
Instructors: Martin Ratcliffe
This workshop will survey the astronomical content that comes with Digistar, highlighting regularly updated and new additions to the system. Remote sites running 2026 can join this workshop via Domecast instead of Zoom.

4:00pm – 5:20pm
Digistar Script Challenge!
Applicable to All Digistar Users
Location: Workstation Classroom *in person/no remote registration
Instructor: Karen Klamczynski
Teams of up to three people will have 80 minutes to use scripting, Show Builder, and/or any Digitstar features to solve a new demo challenge. Make your demo from scratch (no pre-made scripts). Teams present their work during the conference, competing for prizes and bragging rights! We’ll form teams and cover logistics before the workshop starts to maximize available time. For logistical reasons, in-person only.

Digistar Tips & Tricks Beginner friendly!
Most Applicable to D6 and Newer Systems
Location: Dome
Instructors: Digistar Software Engineers
Continuing the tradition of recent DUG conferences, Digistar engineers will provide more golden nuggets of knowledge in a fun and entertaining way. Our goal is everyone in the room learns something that they didn’t know you could do with Digistar. Some topics apply to all Digistar systems.

8:30am – 9:00am
Digistar and Doughnuts
Applicable to All Versions
Enjoy some treats while chatting with the Cosm team about what you learned so far, what’s inspired you, and anything Digistar! Brief announcements at 9:00.

9:15am – 10:30am
Astronomy & JavaScript
Applicable to Digistar 5 and Newer
Location: Workstation Classroom
Instructors: Brad Rush and Mike George
What’s the azimuth and elevation of an object in the sky? What is the speed of a planet at a certain point in its orbit? How many skittles can fit in the sun JavaScript can be used with Digistar to calculate the answers to interesting astronomy questions. In this workshop, we will use JavaScript to show Kepler’s 2nd Law of Planetary Motion in a dynamic way. This workshop is intended for users with a basic understanding of variables, loops, and how to get data from Digistar to use in JavaScript calculations.

Welcome One, Welcome All Beginner friendly!
Applicable to All Systems
Location: Dome
Instructors: Eric Briggs and Michael McCoGrammarlynville
In this interactive workshop, we’ll discuss accessibility methods and tool. Together, we’ll all share real-world experiences to create a reference document for the DUG Wiki. We can cover everything from special audio tracks to captions, service animals, live interpreters, and more. We’ll include dome demonstrations as well. Come to learn and share what has worked best in your dome.

10:45am – 11:30am
Survey Says! You’re the Next Contestant…. Beginner friendly!
Applicable to All Digistar Users
Location: Dome
Instructors: Karen, Mike, Brad, Eric, and Michael
Join us to wrap up the workshops with fun challenges to test what you learned and what you know about the Digistar universe. From Digistar features and commands to DUG history and the host institution, anything might come up in this workshop designed to entertain, make you laugh, and still be educational. Everyone can participate, online and in person.