Header Image: Hubble Space Telescope portrait of Jupiter taken on June 27, 2019. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) Jupiter and Saturn appear during evening twilight, Mars continues to get brighter, and Mercury just might be visible this month, October 2022. Here’s your stargazing […]

Header image: Adler Planetarium graphic depicting the fall celestial event, Chicagohenge. Astronomical summer ends and the season of fall starts this month, September 2022. Here’s your stargazing guide for spotting daytime and nighttime celestial events as the seasons change and the nights grow longer. See Autumn’s Chicagohenge  This month the Sun sets about 50 minutes […]

Image Header: NASA’s Roving with Perseverance traveling exhibit in the Adler Planetarium’s Our Solar System exhibit.  If you work at the Adler Planetarium, you’ll be part of some pretty interesting things. But it’s not every day that you get to be part of a new exhibit installation, especially one from NASA! There is so much […]

Header Image: Adler Planetarium December 2021. As the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere (and one of the historic attractions located on Chicago’s Museum Campus) we’ve got some pretty stellar exhibits you don’t want to miss during your visit! Read on to check these experiences off your Chicago museum bucket list and learn some behind-the-scenes tidbits […]

Header Image: Venus by NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974 Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The brightest planet in the sky gets even brighter than usual this month, February 2022. The planet Venus reaches its greatest brilliance for the entire year this month. Look for Venus very low in the southeast at the start of morning twilight. […]

Header Image: Jupiter and two of its Moons, Io and Ganymede The Earth’s closest point to the Sun for the year and a major meteor shower are highlights for this month, January 2022. Perihelion, or the point in Earth’s orbit when it’s closest to the Sun, occurs at 12:52 am CST the morning of January […]

Header Image: The outside of the Adler Planetarium at night with the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn brightly lit in the background. Image Credit: Mike Smail If skies are clear, we’ll get a chance to see all the planets visible to the unaided eye—and, just maybe, a comet—this month, December 2021. Comet Leonard, discovered in January […]

Header Image: Total lunar eclipse seen in the United States on April 15th, 2014 in San Jose, California. Image Credit: NASA Ames Research Center/Brian Day Thanks to a lunar eclipse, you can watch the full Moon fade away and reappear within the space of a few hours this month, November 2021. The eclipse occurs in […]

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 […]

Header Image: The Adler Planetarium’s new exhibit, Chicago’s Night Sky, features a Far Horizons high altitude balloon and an image of the city of Chicago at night from above. When was the last time you took the time to notice your night sky? If you live in or near the City of Chicago—or any large […]