Visiting The Adler Planetarium

I met Lucy Fortsen, Vice President for Research at Adler, while we were both attending the 214th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, CA back in June. Some of the Galaxy Zoo team members went out for a few drinks one night and we got to talking about how wonderful Chicago is (a fact I was reminded of as soon as I took my first step outside of Union Station). Lucy and I got to talking about Galaxy Zoo and our roles in the collaboration. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was planning a trip to visit Adler and other people involved in the project.

I spent most of my day yesterday July 20 doing two things: traveling, or visiting The Adler Planetarium. The train ride from the St. Louis area is five hours long. I spent most of those five hours working on projects for my part in the Galaxy Zoo collaboration. Eventually, at 10:00 am + 20-something minutes of lateness I arrived at Union Station in the heart of downtown Chicago and was off the the planetarium.

My original plan for the week was to meet with Nancy Dribins on Monday, Doug Roberts sometime over Thursday or Friday and meet with Lucy when time allowed. As it turns out we all met that Monday, which also happened to be the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. Needless to say, there was a lot of excitement in the air that day, and cake.

The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Cake

I also played with the new ‘Moon Wall’ that Adler recently debuted. The Moon Wall is basically at giant display for high-res lunar images. The display simulates flying around the Moon and has a basic joystick control. I was pretty neat.

The Moon Wall at The Adler Planetarium

I also managed to find some time to walk around and see a couple shows. It had been several years since my last visit to Adler, so I had a lot of fun and couldn’t have visited on a better day. Here are a few other pictures I took.

Chicago Skyline with 'Man Enters the Cosmos' in the foreground