Category: Programs

New Fulldome Show Now Playing At The Adler Planetarium: Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’
Header Image: A theater with seats that has a 360 degree screen and projected onto the screen is an image of a dark night sky with white star trials, a rainbow heartbeat pulse, and three pyramids. The Adler Planetarium is excited to announce it has licensed legendary rock band Pink Floyd’s new fulldome planetarium show, […]

Making Stellar Connections With Students and Teachers, One Field Trip At A Time
Header Image: Kids looking through a telescope outside at the Adler Planetarium. Author: Emilse Alvarado, Virtual Field Trips Educator and Sarah Smail Picture this: It’s a crisp Tuesday morning. Your class is happily singing ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ as you pull up to the Adler. You walk into the group entrance and you hear […]

Space During Pride Month
Header Image: The outside of the Adler Planetarium in June 2019 flying the Chicago flag and Progress Pride flag. My name is Kenzie Elizabeth, and I am a LGBTQ+ filmmaker, writer, retired drag queen, and activist from Chicago, and I’m here to talk about space! And it’s June! That’s Pride month, baby! This time last […]

Linking The World’s Planetariums
By Mark SubbaRao, PhD and Colleen Cesaretti Header Image: Mark SubbaRao runs the first tech rehearsal for the 2019 November Kavli Lecture, A Universe of Surprises, in the Grainger Sky Theater. Equipped with two fulldome theaters within the Adler’s walls, global domecasting has become an innovative way that we connect with other planetariums, countries, and […]

The First Planetarium in Space
By Jesus Garcia (Electronics Design System Engineer and Educator) and Dr. Geza Gyuk (Astronomer). On Wednesday, April 17, 2019, the Adler sent its first mission to space! This ambitious project was a collaboration between students, scientists, and volunteers from around Chicagoland. Last spring, students from the ITW David Speer Academy, a public four-year charter high […]

‘American Space Ninja’ to be honored at WISS
On May 16, 2019, in partnership with the Adler Planetarium Women’s Board, the Adler will host its annual Women in Space Science Award Celebration (WISS). This event honors women who make significant contributions to space science and pave the way for future generations in STEM. The Adler is proud to recognize former NASA chief astronaut […]

Mission NiteLite: Rescuing the Night Sky
Header Photo: Overhead image of Kankakee/Bradley, IL from Far Horizons high-altitude balloon test flight 118 on April 29, 2018. The image was shot from 24.5 kilometers up into the stratosphere. This flight was the first successful NiteLite test flight, proving that mapping light pollution in Chicago would be a possibility. Since the dawn of humanity, […]

Insights into Afrofuturism
Header Image: A tour group going up into the Atwood Sphere at the 2019 Adler After Dark: A Night in the Afrofuture. Last year at Adler After Dark, we explored the world of Afrofuturism. This year, will be exploring Afrofuturism again at our Adler After Dark: A Night in the Afrofuture 2.0. What’s Afrofuturism? Great […]

The Far Side of the Galaxy
Growing up in Cicero—a Chicago suburb that shares a border with the city’s Lawndale neighborhood—Theresa Melo never really thought about going to college. Now, she’s a senior at Agnes Scott College, just outside Atlanta, using radio waves to see through the murky parts of our galaxy. Of course, this change of heart didn’t happen overnight. […]

Choose the Moon With Us This Winter!
This winter, we’re stopping to #LookUp and celebrate the mysteries and magnetism of our closest celestial neighbor, the Moon. The Moon has been a source of wonder for all of human history. It has been a muse for poetry, art, and epic stories. As people studied and recorded the patterns of the Moon’s movements, they […]