Destination: Adler Planetarium
Date: 11/18/2010
Cohort: Cassie
Cohort’s favorite thing to do/see in Chicago: Fine Arts Building (410 S. Michigan)
I’d never been to the Adler before last night because I’d always heard it was kind of, well, dumb… Luckily, my good friend Cassie, who can find/make a dance party anywhere, suggested the Planetarium’s monthly space bash, Adler after Dark.We started off the evening with a peek through the telescope at the Doane Observatory, where we saw Jupiter and its Galilean moons; Europa, Callisto, Ganymede, and Io.
Tristan: Which one is Jupiter?
Everyone Else: The big one in the middle…
Tristan: Oh. I thought that was the moon...
Back in the Adler, we picked up some wine and checked out the exhibits to the sounds of thumping techno music coming from the DJ stand. Our favorite by far was playing with Non-Newtonian fluid, AKA Oobleck. Oobleck (so-named after a Dr. Seuss book) is a fluid whose viscosity alters in relation to force applied to it. So, you can stick your hand in slowly, and it will stay a liquid, or you can smack it with a hammer (which I did quite a bit) and it’ll turn solid. Cassie and I hung out and played there so long, and taught other guests about it so enthusiastically that we got recruited to volunteer there by the Scientist running the exhibit.
We also learned how old I would be on IO, which seemed about right.
We hit up the Atwood Sphere, the wee planetarium built in 1913. Instead of sitting in a big theater, you sit in this little 8-person cart that brings you up into a big ball. It then rotates around you, shining light in through holes in the sphere, and an adorable man named Hans points out the constellations and assures you that the thing dangling between Orion’s legs is a sword.
While we waited for the Night Sky Live show to start, we hit up the dance floor/free snack area, which was where everyone seemed to be. (Rightly so! Dancing AND neatly stacked crackers? Move over, Oobleck!) In order to make sure we had a truly out-of-this-world experience, (thank you, Cassie) we opted to pick up a Green Alien Cocktail on the way. (Note the sweet wristbands they give you when you come in.)
After inventing dances like Orbitin’, Zero-Gravity Dance, and Space Junk in the Trunk, our last stop was the Definiti Space Theater to get a tour of Chicago’s night sky (if you could ever actually see it) from a gentleman who had clearly had enough of trying to teach a bunch of drunk people in a dark room about Astronomy. “People call me Big Ben,” he said. “Like the tower in London.” Not like the theory? Our favorite fact was that Jupiter actually has rings too, but they aren’t nearly as impressive as Saturn’s, which are made of ice, and therefore reflect light. Jupiter’s are just made up of crummy old dust and dirt. And probably crumbs. Space crumbs.
And then the arduous task of tipsily getting out of the winding, hilly museum campus and to the train. Thank goodness Big Ben had taught us how to find Polaris so that we could find our way home. Though I think the stunning view on the walk back gave us a pretty good idea of where we ought to be headed…
