The Adler ‘Scope

How Adler Staff is Staying Connected During These “Unprecedented Times” Header Image: Staff members of the Adler Planetarium marketing team posing with newly branded Adler sweatshirts in January 2020. On a cosmic scale, there is very little distance between us. However, when you’re used to collaborating in person to create memorable experiences for an iconic […]

Header Image: Apollo 13 crew returning home after their ocean landing. Image Credit: NASA This month marks the 50th anniversary of the harrowing Apollo 13 mission, which was dangerous and unprecedented. Today, our world faces a very different kind of crisis, but one that is equally unprecedented, with the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. […]

Header Image: Constellation being classified from the Mapping Historic Skies project. Mapping Historic Skies Team: Jessica BrodeFrank, Pedro Raposo, Sam Blickhan, Becky Rother, and Cliff Johnson. The Adler Planetarium opened its new exhibit, Chicago’s Night Sky, in November 2019. This exhibit features real science and research from several of the Adler’s program initiatives, including Far […]

“Chicago’s Black Women in STEAM” is a series on The Adler ’Scope that highlights the awesome women of Chicago who are doing amazing things in science, technology, engineering, art, and math fields here in our own community. Meet women of varying ages, backgrounds, and interests and learn their unique stories. Britt Julious Editorial Director at […]

Header Image: Chicagohenge as seen from West Adams Street. Image Credit: Tim Hara Greetings fellow Chicagoans! It is almost that time of year when nature and architecture harmoniously come together to create the phenomenon known as Chicagohenge. For those who don’t know, Chicagohenge occurs twice a year and happens when the Sun directly lines up […]

The Adler Planetarium first opened its doors to the public on May 12, 1930. This year, we’re celebrating 90 years of looking up on Chicago’s lakeshore. Over the decades, we have witnessed the dawn of human spaceflight, watched humankind fly to the Moon and back, launched experiments into space, helped millions of people connect with […]

Summer Camps at the Adler Planetarium are out-of-this-world. All summer long, campers have the whole universe at their fingertips. With tools like telescopes, programmable robots, and high-altitude balloons—and new friends around every corner—Adler summer campers share adventures of cosmic proportions. Manager of Program Development at the Adler Planetarium, Sarah Smail, is passionate about our Adler […]

The three naked-eye-visible planets outside Earth’s orbit will appear less than 20 degrees apart in the sky this month, March 2020. The planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can be seen low in the southeast just as morning-twilight begins to lighten the sky. Jupiter is the brightest of the three, and it serves as a guidepost […]

YOU GUYS. It’s finally happening. We have reached the “hunting for meteorites underwater” portion of the Adler’s teen-led underwater meteorite hunt! If you’re new to the Aquarius Project, you can get the full story here. But here’s the short version: Green fireball in the sky, meteorites in the lake, assemblage of unlikely band of science […]

Header Image: Moon rising above the Adler Planetarium. Image Credit: Chris Smith Recently, we’ve seen a rising interest in supermoons on social media. But what is a supermoon exactly? And why is it so “super”? What Is a Supermoon? Supermoon is a nickname that describes a Full Moon that occurs within 10% of its closest […]