Taivo Productions Oy is a family company specializing in science communications based in Ivalo, Finnish Lapland. We offer program services under the names Taivo Planetarium and Taivo Astro Tours in the whole Northern Lapland and make occasionally tours to larger area too. The company was started in 2020 and it is the first astronomy oriented program services company in Inari commune area.
Taivo means “sky” in the old Finnish language, the word is found for example in the National Epic of Kalevala.
Mikko Suominen is science journalist and communicator, who has 20 years of experience in the field of space journalism.
As science journalist he specialices in Space Technology, but writes much also about both Astronomy and Sky Phenomena. He has mainly written for Finnish Tähdet ja avaruus [Stars and Space] popular astronomy magazine, which is the largest in its field in the Nordic countries.
He has studied Engineering Physics in Tampere University of Technology and also made pedagogical studies in the University of Tampere. He also attended SSP course in International Space University in 2003. He has taught Space Engineering course for four years in Tampere University of Technology and held several courses related to amateur astronomy.
During his study years he took part in several of European Space Agency’s student projects, including Parabolic Flight Campaign, Ariane 5 launch trip and Rexus sounding rocket campaign.
He has been active in several voluntary freetime communities and their boards, including Finnish Association for Science Editors and Journalists, Astronomical Association Ursa and Finnish Astronautical Society. He has been an amateur astronomer for more than 30 years.
He loves Lapland’s nature and has hiked and lead hiking trips in summer and winter during last 15 years, mainly with Finnish hiking association Tunturilatu.
Xiaoyun Suominen works as Mikko’s assistant in Planetarium show and stargazing. She has studied mechanical engineering at Tampere University of Technology.
She has been in the space education tours in Lapland schools together with Mikko. Space and astronomy is fascinating to her, she has also learnt a lot in this field by herself and from working with Mikko.
Her hobbies include hiking, skiing, canoeing and many more. Basically she just likes moving in the nature.
For planetarium work our teacher and mentor is Arvo “Arkki” Kuusela, who spent more than 20 years touring with his planetarium in Finland, teaching school children of all age groups.
Teaching in planetarium requires a lot of skill and knowledge in order to make the experience enjoyable and personal, no matter what kind of equipment is used.
Too often nowadays so called “planetarium” is in practice only a wide screen movie theater without interaction or possibilities of making a personal experience.
We are continue Arkki’s work on the field of planetarium shows learning from his lessons and adding new fields to it.
Besides company business, Mikko and Xiaoyun also do work in different non-profit projects. In autumn 2024 and spring 2025 they toured Lapland’s schools with the funding of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.