Visiting Adler Planetarium

Posted by Kelly Whitt Aug 4, 2006

We recently returned from a mini getaway to Chicago. It was 108 with the heat index, so we needed to do something indoors. Our first stop was Adler Planetarium. Adler Planetarium sits out on a spit of land sticking into Lake Michigan. It is an excellent place to get a stunning view of downtown Chicago.

When we arrived, the planetarium show we wanted to see was about to begin, so we headed straight for the theater. Our show was called Space in Your Face, which is a rather dramatic title for what was simply a traditional planetarium show, involving a tour of the stars currently in the night sky. But everyone in the theater was quiet and listened politely, including my son. He was hanging on the lady's every word, watching her pointer as she showed us first Jupiter and the moon, and then the familiar Big Dipper. The Big Dipper is a great way to find yourself in a dark and disorienting night sky. From the Big Dipper you can find the North Star, Polaris, or use the handle stars to "arc to Arcturus and speed on down to Spica." Finding these stars will help you trace out their home constellations, Bootes and Virgo, respectively. There were many other stops we made on the overhead dome, but the program was not too long nor too short.

After the planetarium show we visited the exhibits. The solar system section held everyone's attention the longest. The display sits out by the windows overlooking Lake Michigan. The light-filled room contained models of the planets and Sun to scale, computer stations where you could input your weight and age and find out how it translates to other planets, and a little rover exploring terrain like that on Mars. Nearby there was a Milky Way exhibit with a glorious photo spread atop one wall showing the entire Milky Way from Earth's point of view. We watched an excellent 5-minute film about space that was in 3D (if you wore the requisite glasses). My three-year-old daughter watched for a while but then had to take the glasses off because the objects flying at her were a bit scary. Even before the movie started, there were "previews" in the form of still frames that were 3D Mars images, which were every bit as good as the movie.

We learned about mass, viewed ourselves "spaghettified" in funhouse mirrors as if we were being sucked into a black hole, and watched as Copernicus pondered what would happen if the Sun, instead of Earth, were the center of the known universe. But mostly we just had fun. You can too. Plan your visit at Adler Planetarium.