A Globetrotting Ambassador
by Kevin Fritz
Derek Demeter, the longtime director of the Emil Buehler Perpetual Trust Planetarium at Seminole State College, is becoming a well-traveled ambassador for the school.
Over the summer, Derek visited Japan for the International Planetarium Society (IPS) conference in Fukuoka. He serves as executive secretary of the society, the largest organization of planetarium professionals in the world.
Two years ago, Derek attended an IPS conference in Berlin, Germany, and last year, he taught astronomy and space science lessons to students and community members in several cities in Italy.
“We at SSC are playing a big role in shaping the world of planetariums,” says Derek. “We are doing some cool stuff, and people are learning from us.”
Are We in Japan or Florida?
Even though Central Florida and Fukuoka are thousands of miles apart, they have wild weather in common. The city of Fukuoka, a tropical setting on Kyushu Island on the Sea of Japan, experienced two typhoons during the convention.
“Blindfolded, I would have thought I was in Florida,” says Derek with a laugh. “The heat, the humidity, the tropical cyclones.”
This year’s IPS conference attracted more than 600 planetarium-associated attendees representing 40 countries, with Derek leading several workshops and presentations.
“The conference was really exciting because I got to learn from everybody,” he says, “and they got to learn from me about our planetarium.”
For one of his sessions, Derek detailed how Seminole State became home to a next-generation planetarium in 2023 with the renovation of the Emil Buehler Planetarium on the Sanford/Lake Mary campus. The upgrade included the addition of the Digistar full-dome projection system, allowing for a stunning virtual night sky and immersive 360-degree videos and photos.
Another of his presentations featured a hands-on demonstration using balloons to depict the evolution of stars.
“I had a gentleman from Abu Dhabi [capital of the United Arab Emirates] tell me he is going to use that back home,” says Derek. “It is exciting to think that I brought something to the conference that may be shown in planetariums in other parts of the world.”
Give Peace a Chance
Before the conference began, Derek and his wife traveled to Hiroshima, Japan, where they paid a visit to Peace Memorial Park. The site was ground zero for the atomic bomb that was detonated in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroying the city and instantly killing tens of thousands. Many more died later of their injuries and radiation poisoning.
“It was very emotional,” says Derek. “You could tell the underlying theme at Peace Park was ‘Let’s not let this happen again.’”
While there, Derek shot videos and photos that will be shared with students at Seminole State.
“A faculty member at SSC asked if I could capture the essence of the memorials in Hiroshima and bring them back to school,” says Derek. “He wanted to create an immersive wow factor experience for the students.”
For Derek, the visit to Peace Memorial Park was unforgettable.
“I studied World War II history, and just to be there in Hiroshima was like going into the fourth dimension of space of what happened there,” he says. “It was my defining moment in Japan. You can read about it, but that does not replace being there. It was so important to me to immerse myself and be able to relay that feeling back home to our students.”
Next on the Itinerary
With Germany, Italy, and Japan under his belt, what’s next for Derek? One option may be teaching astronomy classes in Japan, like he did in Italy. More likely, South America will be his next stop, via a Seminole State-sponsored, study-abroad excursion to Chile next summer.
“Chile is known as the capital of astronomy,” he says. “It’s the only place in the world with such a high concentration of observatories. I am really looking forward to that.”