07/12/17 - Day 100 - Chicago, IL - Adler Planetarium

Quick Update - made it back out to Museum Campus to visit the planetarium.  Not sure when the last time I've seen one.  The Adler Planetarium was founded in 1930 and has exhibits covering the history of astronomy (early telescopes, astrolabes, etc.), the history of space flight, and planets, comets, asteroids.



An early space capsule


A replica of an early telescope


Replica of a Mars rover



It was an OK visit, but I wasn't overwhelmed by the place.  A couple of issues, one which isn't their fault and one that is.  First, there were a bunch of annoying kids there.  I suppose that's to be expected.  However, I felt that the explanations for several of the exhibits were lacking.  They have about a dozen examples of astrolabes, but after viewing them I still don't know how they work.  Several exhibits included names of objects but no detail.  Also, there are several areas that require additional fees to visit, which I found to be excessive.  On top of that, the observatory itself was closed, so I didn't even get to see the telescope for which the place was built to begin with.  I would have been ok skipping this one.

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