I’ve been longing to tick the Alder Planetarium off my Chicago Bucket List for a while now, so yesterday I decided to do just that. And what a day it turned out to be. We arrived at around 1PM and ended up spending over 4 hours there. I ended up coming out with more questions than I had going in, truly a fascinating experience.
With the Vip Ticket from City Pass you skip the ques when entering. You also get choice 2 shows from the many on offer at the Planetarium as well as the Historic Atwood Experience. You get full access to all of the exhibits on show too. If you are going to do a lot of touristy things like this I’d recommend the City Pass, at only $98 you get access to many other of the city’s best attractions at a discounted rate.
So we began by taking a wander through the Mission Moon exhibit. This tells you the story behind Americas race to be the first country to land on the moon and all of the different missions throughout the years. It also lets you in behind the doors on what it’s like to be an astronaut. The exhibit tells the story of Apollo 13 through the eyes of Jim Lovell. Apollo 13 is a very famous mission that has been made into a Hollywood film starring Tom Hanks (playing the part of Jim Lovell). The Apollo 13 mission was due to land on the moon but after an oxygen tank exploded crippling the module the mission was aborted. The crew then had the issue of trying to navigate their way back to earth with very limited resources and a damaged command module.
After our lunar experience we moved on to see the Solar System exhibition. Here you find out everything worth knowing about our solar system, including all the fascinating planets around us and what makes them different to each other. There is a Mars Rover on show here; the attention to detail on this machine was incredible. It’s cool to think that there are machines like this crawling around Mars sending back information to earth.
It was then time to catch the first show on our list. The Cosmic Wonder show takes you on a journey through history in the Definiti Space Theatre. This was my first ever experience of a space show like this. I found it to be deeply relaxing sitting back in the chair, looking up at the stars, being brought to different points in space and time. Now I understand why people have been looking at the night’s sky for thousands of years asking questions. Although some of those questions have been answered there is still so much we don’t know about the universe and the wonders it holds.
After the Cosmic Wonder Show we had an hour to kill before our next show, the perfect time to explore the bottom floor of the Planetarium. Here you get the chance to learn about the history of telescopes and how we studied the stars before their invention, you will also see how astronomy has developed throughout our culture from the time it began. The most fascinating part of this floor was the A Walk Through Space And Time exhibit, where you can see how the galaxy first began and how everything in the universe was formed.
It was then time for our second show of the day Destination Solar System. This show takes you to the year 2096 where space travel is just an everyday thing and you are rocketing off on a tour of the solar system. Your tour guides will be Jesse, a rookie out of the space academy, and Max, the ships computer. This makes for a fun filled tour which takes you from the sandstorms on Mars to the rings around Pluto and everywhere in between. Not only is this show fun and interactive but it is also very informative at the same time.
If you’re having a family day out there is plenty of things to get the kids involved. Not only are the exhibits very interactive but the shows are very child friendly and easy to follow. There is also a Community Design Lab where the kids can create their own experiments and play to their hearts content. There really is something for everyone in the Alder Planetarium.