The Adler ‘Scope

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 […]

Chicago has long been a city of stargazers. And one way or another, all astronomical roads in Chicago have led to the Adler since it became the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere in 1930. Here are a few stories, objects, and documents from our collections that remind us how the Adler has helped Chicagoans […]

Changes are coming to Chicago’s nights. The city is replacing streetlights with a new generation of lighting. These new lights will change how our neighborhoods look and how we view the sky. Will new lighting worsen light pollution? How can we help keep the stars visible for Chicago? Learn how the Adler Planetarium is helping […]

Author: Chris Bresky (Former Teen Programs Manager) A year ago, an incredibly common thing happened. A large meteor entered our atmosphere over the Midwest, exploded, and rained down hundreds of meteorites into Lake Michigan. Thousands of meteorites fall to Earth every year; this on paper isn’t all that astounding. What’s even more common is that […]

On May 9, 2018, Dr. Daniel P. Schrag, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at Harvard University, was a guest lecturer as part of our Kavli Fulldome Lecture Series. Dr. Schrag discussed the increase of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere due to burning coal, oil, and gas, as well as how it represents an unprecedented […]

Light pollution is a problem that affects 99 percent of the U.S. population in some way; and two-thirds of us cannot see the Milky Way in our night skies. Light pollution has been shown to affect human health, wildlife, and ecosystems; and billions of dollars are wasted each year as our lights are pointed upward. […]

Watching the skies as they change—from day to night, from season to season—is a pastime as old as civilization. It’s even more fun when you know something about what you’re watching. Here are a few sky highlights you can see for yourself in the month of October 2018. The planet Mars is the brightest readily […]

You have certainly marveled at the space artifacts we have on display in the Mission Moon exhibition. But it might surprise you that one of the oldest objects in our collections to have flown to space is actually a 200-year-old pocket globe. In December 1999, it was taken aboard Space Shuttle Discovery during the mission […]