Youth Organization for Lights Out (YOLO) is a STEM civic action program created to empower high school youth to advocate within their community about a single environmental issue: light pollution. The program began in a biology class at World Language High School located in Chicago’s South Lawndale neighborhood. It has evolved into an afterschool program […]

It’s Astronomy Day! On such a day we could seize the opportunity to talk about what it feels like to look up through a telescope or how our collections experts preserve centuries-old astrolabes or the latest updates on our Adler teen-led underwater meteorite hunt… but as I watch the people around me do what they […]

Though the Sun sets later and later each evening this month, there are still plenty of fine night-sky sights in May 2019. After sunset, look about 25 degrees above the west-northwest horizon to see the planet Mars. It’s dimmer than first magnitude in brightness, but it’s still bright enough—and colorful enough—to be easily spotted. The […]

Ah, Citizen Science Day—what a day to be alive! How amazing is it that ordinary citizens all over the world are helping to contribute to real scientific research RIGHT NOW, possibly on the verge of making some exciting new discoveries?! “Wait… how is that possible?” you ask. Simply put, citizen science is a way for […]

The Adler Planetarium’s Doane Observatory has had a bumpy right over the last 12 months. But it’s finally back in working condition. Learn about its journey to recovery!

Though Spring has begun in the Northern Hemisphere, some of the night sky’s brightest stars—usually associated with wintertime—can still be seen this month, April 2019. Look to the southwest during evening twilight, to see a rhombus-shaped pattern of bright stars—like a long, thin, horizontally-stretched-out square in the sky. The top point of the rhombus is […]

Did you get to see the lunar eclipse this past January right before sunrise? It was tough to see. The Moon was low in the west, and we didn’t get to view the entire eclipse because the Moon set before the eclipse finished. Folks out in the western U.S. got a much better chance to […]

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 […]