A Day at the Adler Planetarium

On Saturday afternoon I went to Chicago's Adler Planetarium. It has the world's oldest operating planetarium, the western hemisphere's first planetarium, and is the world's only museum with two operating planetariums. I got a ticket to the museum and one show, "Nightsky Live" which would basically just show off the planetarium with a view of the night sky over Chicago.



The outside of the old building is adorned with brass plates representing the 12 astrological zodiac symbols. The back of the museum has had a very tasteful addition which hosts a larger museum and solarium.



The Atwood Sphere is actually Chicago's oldest planetarium. It was sold to the Navy and then bought back by the Adler planetarium in the 90s. The phere is a 15ft (5 m) diameter sheet metal sphere with 692 holes in the surface, allowing light to enter to show positions of the brightest stars relative to an Earth viewing point. The sphere slowly rotates around the viewer putting the stars in motion.



In the basement of the planetarium is more exhibit space where many ancient astonomy tools are on display. There were far more than I could photograph, but here are some of the more interesting ones.



I took this picture of the projector inside the planetarium even though I technically wasn't supposed to take photos in there, I think they mean just while the show was going.



Behind the planetarium is a small observatory with a telescope to enable Chicagoans to see the night sky at over 5000x. The observatory is only open to the public on Fridays and during special events like eclipses, but they use it for research regularly.



There are some pictures taken from the observatory at this page:

http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/exhibits/doane.shtml

Field Museum of Natural History

On Sunday I went to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. I took over 400 pictures of the inside of the museum, but I want to start with pictures of the outside so you can see how big it is. This is just one of three such museums devoted to the natural sciences that sit on Chicago's 57-acre lakefront Museum Campus. The other two are the Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium. These are all named after famous Chicago millionaires of the early 20th century who donated generously to the city so we can now enjoy this egghead crap. The Field Museum is in fact named for its first benefactor, Marshall Field... then President of Marshall Fields, the offspring of Potter Palmer's dry goods store (now Macy's *FUMES WITH RAGE*)

These three institutions are regarded as among the finest of their kind in the world and together attract more visits annually than any comparable site in Chicago. In 2006, the Field Museum was the number one cultural attraction in Chicago but surrendered the title in 2007 to the Shedd Aquarium. You get the idea... this is a popular place for Chicago and the world.

The museum was founded in 1893 for the World's Columbian Exposition AKA the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. It was housed in the Palace of Fine Arts until 1921 when it was moved to its present location. The original building in Hyde Park, several miles to the south, now houses Chicago's famous Museum of Science and Industry.

I'll get photos of the inside of the museum and some of the exhibit halls in future blog articles.