Rock Creek Park Nature Center and Planetarium

Set just outside the heart of Washington DC lies Rock Creek Park, where we met the National Capital Astronomer for their stargazing night. This time our visit was for the small planetarium within its grounds, situated within the Nature Center. Entrance is free, and shows are put on twice a day at weekends - 1pm for all ages, 4pm for older children and upwards.

Rock Creek Park Nature Center and Planetarium

The small centre is the hub for the numerous activities that go on in the park, and as such it makes sense that the displays show visitors what is on offer when it comes to the flora and fauna. It is very tastefully done, laying out the variety of species in glass tanks or boxes with a good amount of information on the side. There is a touch table with furs and skeletons, and a sand pit for creating and learning about animal tracks.

The planetarium itself is the only one within the National Park Service, making it unique in that respect. It has had 3 systems in its 50 year lifespan, from the starball nicknamed George, to its successor, George II, to the newly digital Spitz projector nicknamed Seymour (because you can 'see more' with it...) which runs Starry Night. The sessions aren't led by astronomers, but by the park rangers who work with the Capital Astronomers to augment their knowledge of the sky.

The system itself is great, allowing you to visit various panoramas and zoom in items of interest in the sky. As you go from place to place, you lift off from where you are and then face the Earth as you travel above it. I visited Stonehenge on the solstice before heading off to Taiwan for a look around the summer sky, and this was a treat to see how the Earth moved beneath. It also has the functionality to observe from various craters on the Moon and Mars, along with other planets in the Solar System.

The session was very informal, informative and fun; it wasn't a lecture, it was an intimate visit to the night sky and the stories contained within. Afterwards I was even allowed to drive the desk for a bit, because they are always open to meeting fellow planetarians from across the globe. This is neither a big centre nor a big planetarium, but it serves to introduce the sky and park to whomsoever drops by, and it does a good job at that.

Astronomy in DC

The National Capital Astronomers have a monthly meeting in Rock Creek Park in Washington DC. Typically they see around 50 people coming to their events, sometimes up to 100. Volunteers set up their own telescopes, and then invite visitors to see some of the wonders of the night sky up close. There was all sorts of equipment there on the evening we visited, including a replica Galileo scope which was used to see the Moon and some other, more up-to-date stuff. There was even, for the technologically advanced, someone with an iphone showing off Google Sky, pointing at a constellation and being told all about it there.

The man in charge, Joe, was an extremely amiable fellow and welcomed the meetup group that had come (as well as other stragglers like us) to the star party. I felt warmly engaged, well included and very informed, as well as reconnected to the beauty of the night sky being able to see Saturn and moons, Albireo and the double-double of Epsilon Lyrae. It is no wonder therefore that the observing sessions are described as one of the hidden jewels of DC.

There was another chance to use the telescopes at the University of Maryland's Astronomy Department, which hosts twice-monthly Open House evenings, which involve a talk and a tour of the Observatory. This year the department is hosting 'Learn the Sky' nights, with either a beginners' class or an advanced course, and this appears to be well worth the investment, if you're able to withstand the mosquitoes.

Capital Astronomers: www.capitalastronomers.org
Maryland Astronomy Department: www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse

At this point I would also like to point readers to the software Chromascope, which would have been extremely useful in the talk at the Observatory. It has been developed by a former postdoc at Jodrell Bank and combines data from sky surveys to create a map of the universe at each different wavelength. An incredible tool for science museums, centres and interested parties alike.

Smithsonian - Air and Space Museum

How does one begin to describe such a giant as the Smithsonian? The name is reknowned the world over, and the collection is (according to some) forty times greater than the buildings-full on display. Now, with the schools out for the summer, the foundation is a favourite spot for visits by families, safety patrols and other such summer camps.

National Air and Space Museum

Within two days I and my colleagues were able to visit the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy building, and also dip into the downtown site and the Natural History Museum next door. Entry to the Smithsonian is free and requires a bag search and sometimes a body scan, but to park out at the Udvar-Hazy costs $15 and entry is free from there.

It is easy to see why the Smithsonian is a beloved institution, due to its awe-inspiring collection. The Udvar-Hazy is described as 'America's Hangar', and so it is. As you can see in the pictures, there are planes suspended everywhere, and various levels of walkways to aid closer inspection of most of them. There are panels explaining each one, although these can sometimes be hard to find, but the sheer number, scale and experience of each one is enough to impress the beauty of engineering on its own.

Attached to the building is an air traffic control (ATC) tower, out of which you can see over to Dulles Airport and watch the planes taking off and landing. Sadly the seeing wasn't good on the day we went, but it was still a good experience to look out over the surrounding countryside. Inside there are displays about the ATC process and even a live voice feed from the main tower; what there wasn't was very much interactivity. There are simple games out there for you to try your hand at the controls, but this felt very much like a place where you go to be awed and informed, but not engaged so much. Of course, it is a museum and not a centre, and that must be made clear.

In the city centre, there is a different story. Once again there are large queues to get in, but here there is an excellent balance of the informative and the interactive, with plenty of up-to-date electronics and multi-player items. I was glad to see that Pluto had been reclassified and was told that this had happened very soon after the announcement was made in August 2006.

Both here and in the Natural History Museum however I noticed something slightly perplexing. Whilst I am not in favour of rebranding and change for the sake of it, there were several parts of the museum that were still dating from the 60s, 70s and 80s and I wondered why with all the money that must be available there was still this discrepancy. The older parts - in some cases just one explanatory panel in a sea of updated ones - really clashed with the style of the new. In some cases fonts changed as different bits were added, and it really made me question why a whole section couldn't be replaced just to bring everything into line.

The Einstein planetarium is acceptable quality, though not quite as good as I would expect for the entrance ticket of $9. We saw 'Black Holes', narrated by Liam Neeson, and only one show is a free night sky show, and that is at 10:30am three days a week.

Of course, it is difficult to sum up such an institution as the Smithsonian having only just seen a couple of its buildings in short order, but I feel it my duty to post my thoughts here for the rest of the world to see. I wholeheartedly recommend a visit should you ever be in DC, because its collection is marvellous and it has the space to show some of the most scientifically and historically important pieces around in the proper manner. An excellent visit.

Montréal Planetarium

In 2012, Montréal will have a new planetarium based out by the Biodome in the Olympic Park. The current one has been going since 1966 and is therefore due for retirement but even in its advanced years it packs a huge punch. The Zeiss Mark 6 (upgraded from a Mark 5) produces a beautiful sky as any well-looked after analogue planetarium would do, but there’s more than just this going for Montréal.

The first thing that hits you as you walk in is the sheer size of the place and how much room the projector itself takes up. Showing both northern and southern hemisphere skies it sits in the centre of the hall exuding magnificence. Around it are 385 seats, fewer than there were originally, because they removed some to be able to build a couple of small stages for the presenters.

Around this dome, the largest in Canada, are a series of slide projectors that make a wonderfully satisfying clatter every time the show moves forward. It is the augmentations that allow your breath to be stolen away by this place; it can do special effects, landscapes and digital projection, but these are all separate systems that are controlled via a small submarine-style room next door. Believe me when I say that this is quite something, as my inner techie was buzzing and leaping like there was no tomorrow.

As it is an old system, the Omni1 part of it can only run in MS-DOS on 386s, the computers of choice 15 years ago. The sound and such used to be on DAT tapes, but has since moved to TASCAM X-48 HDD. The shows are even compiled on 3.5” floppy discs, and nostalgia twigged when I saw that. They have to go to great length to get the slides produced too; pictures are sent digitally to New Mexico, altered there and forwarded to Colorado where they are printed and shipped back up to Montréal.

You may think after this description that the old system wasn’t too good – let me set you right if this is indeed the case. The combination of the banks of circuit boards, DVD players, knobs and switches is to produce a multimedia experience which combines the beautiful skies of the analogue with some of the functionality of digital. To take things to the next level however you have to watch a show being performed.

All shows are pre-recorded with a blend of live presentation. In a typical show the last 15 minutes are when the Zeiss raises itself up to full height and really shows off its prize. I watched as Louie Bernstein, one of the head writers gave us a show about Saturn and its moons and this was such a thrill to go between voiceover and visuals to a science show done before my very eyes. For example, to show how Saturn’s density (and is the only planet of this solar system so to do) there was a small bath of water and a scale model of the planet. There it was in front of me – Saturn, with the density of wood, floating in water.

At the very beginning of the show whilst people were entering, Louie gave us some ‘astronews’ talking about various things hitting the headlines in the world of astronomy, such as Titan’s internal structure and vulcanism on Venus, at a pleasing level of information. The show itself, due to it being partly presenter-led, was also extremely well tailored to the audience and I was blown away by the detail and the graphics high above me.

On weekend mornings, children’s shows are put on whilst on those evenings there is one called the Quest for the Origins of Life about ALMA. 90% of the shows are created in house, simply because it’s a difficult piece of kit to adapt other shows for; they also have a 3:1 ratio of French:English shows. At 8 Canadian dollars, it’s well worth a visit, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Dalhousie Planetarium

The planetarium at Dalhousie University is a beautiful old piece of equipment – built to last post-war and purchased the a forward-looking benefactor in 1955, it still serves the people of Halifax 55 years on. I was shown the setup by Dr Stephen Payne and I even got to see it in operation, a manual crank advancing the year, planets and the moon needing to be plugged in and put on the right setting.

Dalhousie Planetarium

What is truly incredible though is how it is still being used by various groups and runs a few shows a week. For a nominal fee visitors can be shown the night sky and it’s well worth a visit for the equipment alone. It’s an extremely intimate space too, with under 40 people accommodated within the dome, quite impressive considering that the planetarium welcomed around 3000 visitors last year alone.

Usage of the facility is increasing, and whilst there may never be enough demand or cost-efficiency for a full planetarium in Nova Scotia, this relic of a bygone age still proves itself more than up to the challenge of introducing the skies to the city. Add into that the fact that the planetarium director is actively expanding its reach to schools and families, long may this continue.

Bedford Institute of Oceanography

The Bedford Institute of Oceanography is somewhat unique in my list of places to visit in North America. It is not a science centre per se, nor is it a science museum. It is, in fact, a research centre that is welcoming visitors to look around and see what it does. Each tour needs to be booked in advance, and you go around with guides who tailor your visit to each group’s needs.

Bedford Institute of Oceanography

It was truly fascinating for me, an astronomer from the city that is furthest away from the coast in England, to find out more about marine life. They have set things out very well, thinking about both the young and the old in their layout, with options for both when it comes to different groups. Children can find out about erosion, sand and even try to find Wally on more adult level posters.

People of all ages are interested in the Titanic exhibition, showing how the wreckage looked when first discovered and more recently. Onwards from that is the ‘fish lab’, where the public can watch scientists at work and see how the facility is actively trying to help endangered species and find out how to stop invasive ones from spreading. This is real science being done before your eyes, and you can put any questions you have to those who are working there.

What has to be the most fun is the ‘touch tank’, where visitors can even hold some of the specimens used by the institute. This is housed in a shed outside the institute and I got to hold a crab, a scallop and a sea cucumber, and was even introduced to an hermaphrodite lobster that was orange on one side and black on the other. A surreal experience!

At present the tours last one hour and are free; phone booking is essential however. What may come of it in the future I don’t know, because as the remit and facilities expand, an actual science centre may well be built. For now however it is a great way to show local people what is happening both in science and in the bay beside them in the simplest, friendliest way. Full marks for the employment of special tour guides and the opportunity to get down to the shop floor, so to speak.

Halifax Discovery Centre

The Discovery Centre started off as a touring science theatre in a van, travelling around Nova Scotia. It remains the only science centre in the province to this day, and still retains the local, community-based feel in a slightly rough-and-ready package. One reason is that the premises were not purpose-built or even designed. It was once a bar, the ‘Misty Moon’ and a department store, so as you can imagine it’s not a huge place at all.

Halifax Discovery Centre

Nevertheless, the Discovery Centre still manages to put a new exhibition on in the main hall three times a year with space for an inflatable planetarium. Science busking happens in the afternoons and workshops in the mornings and after hours their theatre screens HD films and can be hired out for corporate events, seating 65 or letting 75 stand.

This feeling of making do with limited resources extends to the floors as well. As you walk around you notice that a lot of them are sponsored by various companies, and the reason for this is that they lack the funding to do very much at all. What is done is cheap and simple, such as showing the speed of sound by speaking into a funnel, letting the sound waves travel through a long pipe before returning to a point next to your ear. Easy and incredibly effective, especially considering that we can see the pipe and imagine the sound zipping round inside.

Exhibits are brought from other places too, such as Science North. It doesn’t end there; they work with education students from the local Mount Saint Vincent university to train them in workshops and scientific engagement with school groups. They continue to do their community-based workshops and school tours with ‘Science on the Road’, maintaining that link with their origins and hopefully soon extending to Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

The centre is popular with locals and tourists alike, and uses some ingenious ways to excite the local media when a new exhibition is on its way. When the Monkeys were there, the centre sent a stuffed chimp to the local press, a Lego set when that one came to town and a candy ring when the current diamonds exhibition arrived. Their programme of summer camps and birthday parties is popular too, and when I spoke to one boy who had just been to a party he said that he had enjoyed it a lot.

The prize for me though was up on the 2nd floor, where the ultimate in engagement with simplicity rested. How do you get people to go around an exhibition about how science and democracy are related? The simple, brilliant way is to build it into a maze. A simple maze granted, but one that is fun enough to attract people’s attention and encourage them to go around and find the various stations. It didn’t require that much building – simple translucent plastic sheeting divided the tracks, which I thought ingenious.

My main thrust in these reviews is, as ever, the staff. Given the budget constraints and lack of funding, they do well with what they have. Everyone there is approachable and relaxed, which is the feeling I get from the place anyway. It is a friendly, local centre, laid-back and community-based, even down to the bicycle-powered radio, which plays a Halifax station when pedalled.

Whilst the building needs to be renovated – and finished – and some of the exhibits were made in the 1970s, there is a good feeling about the place. It does have a foot in new media too, with a presence on facebook and Twitter. So whilst this is not the most up-to-date or flashy science centre I have visited, it is still one that does its best with what it has in the perennial hope of some major source of funding somewhere down the line.