Griffith Observatory

The Griffith Observatory seems to be LA's answer to its Greenwich counterpart, with excellent demonstrations of the universe and solar system, as well as a dual-system planetarium running E&S Digistar 3 on DLPs with a Zeiss Universarium for crystal clear night skies. Sadly tickets to this were sold out when I got back from my walk in the afternoon, but I was lucky enough to get a look inside when I first arrived.

Griffith Observatory

There is a lot of good stuff here, and certainly more than you may expect from first looking. A Tesla Coil is fired every hour, along with a talk given by a member of staff, a public programme of events also runs, and our group was able to see an interactive presentation of how to make a comet (using water, sand, windex and dry ice). The presentation style was informal and interesting, with science questions being answered whilst guests entered.

There were once again good links to local astronomers and reasons why California should be well known in astronomical circles, as well as a live view of the sun on a smoky glass screen in one area. This was a very nice touch, as was the effect of looking at Saturn through a telescope in the same hall. The planets themselves got excellent treatment in the downstairs area, being displayed in very intuitive ways as regards size, scale and orientation.

My favourite piece in the observatory though had to be the Gottlieb Transit corridor which, at local noon, focuses the sun onto a large arc of metal to show the date and correspond to the place on the ecliptic. Sadly this wasn't well explained at all, but as someone who knows what was going on I really appreciated it.

It would be worth going again when it's not so busy, so I shall hopefully have reason to visit LA again in order to see more, but for anyone wanting to find out more about the universe this is a good place to go in Hollywood. There are hiking trails for those needing a walk as well.

California ScienCenter

In the heart of Exposition Park in Los Angeles lies the California ScienCenter, a free museum with IMAX and paid exhibitions. It is an imposing structure, although with a small problem of being difficult to find coming from public transport, and is equally breathtaking from the inside with a number of good exhibits and a well thought-out plan behind it.

California ScienCenter

The usual praises are sung - good interactives and friendly staff. Where this particular centre excels is in areas such as the local connection; for instance material unearthed from a landfill by an earthquake was put on display and after 15 years you could still read the print on the paper and so forth. This was part of the Ecosystems exhibition, in which there was also fish from the ocean and so on. As part of the extreme climates, a large block of ice demonstrated the different permeabilities of fabrics and in the desert flash floods showed the fickleness of the land.

One excellent interactive are that particularly springs to mind was the island zone, which demonstrated by means of catapults, air pumps and grappling hooks how difficult it was to get to the island by air, sea and carrier. Another one consisted of different sized balls in a perspex box which visitors had to pull up using different 'beaks', showing the adaptations of birds to their prey. Photos are in the album linked above.

In the section on Egypt and the pyramids, the visitor was challenged to put the pieces of pottery (and thence the story) together for themselves, emulating the work done by the real scientists. This was done very well, with good explanation for you when you finished. A pit with bones was displayed - who used it? Was it a party bin or a burial ground outside a butcher's? Poor or rich? Very well done, and very simple.

So here is a centre that's not afraid to get visitors to think and is also free for everyone to look around. This is why I heartily recommend the California ScienCenter to anyone in the LA area - it's well worth a visit.

Three Rivers Foundation (3RF)

18 miles to the west of Crowell, a small town in West Texas, lies the 3RF campus out in the middle of nowhere. Out here there is no light pollution, as the nearest sources are individual ranches far on the horizon. It's flat all around, so the view of the night sky is unparalleled, and it is here that I was invited as part of my Astrotour 2010 to see the stars as I have never done before.

Three Rivers Foundation

You may think that this part of Texas would be difficult to get to and this is certainly the case for light pollution reasons - but once there it is incredible and well worth the drive. After all, it's only 3.5 hours from the DFW Metroplex and close to Oklahoma too - a short hop for most Americans!

I visited for one of the monthly public star parties, beginning with a view of the Sun through a specially filtered telescope, then I gave a talk about how important astronomy and science education is for the world. As the sky got darker, the myriad volunteers who had come for the show opened their telescopes up to the public and I was able to see all the planets and even Pluto. In fact, one of the big draws to the campus is their 30" reflector, which gave excellent views of galaxies and the more 'invisible' objects in the universe.

3RF doesn't just open their campus for public star parties, however. There is camping (both tent and RV) for anyone wishing to stay overnight, as well as a bunkhouse for those wishing to have a bit more comfort. Their classroom has wi-fi and projectors, which get used by children's groups such as the Scouts for their badges. It's not just astronomy either, as the whole site is full of wildlife and is home to Project Prairie Wild, which emphasises the environmental sciences and conservation.

In fact 3RF has a unique draw for schools, as they offer programs for teachers and students to explore science and astronomy in a very hands-on manner. The company is extremely enthusiastic about opening up nature and the night sky to all, and this really shows in the enthusiasm, warmth and knowledge of their presenters. It was an absolutely amazing evening and I encourage everyone to find a way to get out there to see the campus and the crowd.

If you are also interested in the arts, the Three Rivers Foundation offers an Arts side in Quanah, 20 miles north of Crowell, and have teamed up with 3RF Australia to bring the whole of the night sky to both countries. There are three telescopes in the Butterfly Garden of the Comanche Springs campus which can be accessed via the web so that Australian students can experience the northern hemisphere skies.

So many thanks to Patrice, Jeff, Fred, David, Vance and all the others that made my stay so great there!

Dallas Museum of Nature and Science

I have to preface this review with the disclaimer that the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas is moving to a new, bigger facility within two years, which means therefore that not much new investment is going into the current building. This does not mean though that the museum is rundown, but it could in other circumstances be a candidate for quite some refurbishment.

Dallas Museum of Science and Nature

The Museum actually encompasses the Science Centre, Natural History Museum and Children's Museum - being over 6 years' old and childless meant that I couldn't go into that part. The main lobby though is quite impressive, with the planets and their distances in mosaic on the floor and the IMAX projector in the far wall behind glass. There is a planetarium there, but we didn't visit, I'm afraid - as a planetarium worker I've seen Wonders of the Universe and Cosmic Safari far too many times. There were night sky shows too, but my companions had already seen one in Arlington.

The main travelling exhibition was an excellent feature all about water and it's scarcity in fresh form. It gave facts and statistics in clear terminology that related it back to visitors' experiences, had a good amount of interactivity, especially when it came to providing both single player and multiplayer games and quizzes. It put its case clearly and intelligently, and I left it more knowledgeable about water and - most importantly - what I can do to help at home.

Elsewhere one of the popular exhibits with the children is the dino dig - a large sandpit with dinosaur 'remains' buried underneath, but crucially lots of information on how real archaeologists go about putting together a team and preserving what they find. This I noticed in the water exhibition too - signage which told you what you were looking for, what to do and how it works. This simple extra bit of information is crucial, I believe, to a good customer experience.

The DNA exhibition was also excellent, using technology well to get the ideas behind everything across. The Networks exhibition was the exact same one I saw in Ottawa's Museum of Science and Technology, which surprised me slightly, and the human body area was fascinating with simple demonstrations of how much your skin weighs and so on.

The older exhibits looked slightly the worse for wear, and there was some serious glass-case syndrome going on, but this is understandable with the somewhat imminent move to the new facility. The Natural History part of the museum (housed currently in a separate building) still did its job, with a nice polycarbonate cave structure to demonstrate the habitats of bats and other such creatures.

Overall the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science is very good, and an interesting diversion for people of all ages. There is an IMAX and planetarium, and it's relatively inexpensive to go inside. Worth a trip if you're in the area.

Arlington Planetarium

There is a point where large planetaria become too big, and the intimacy is lost. The new planetarium at the University of Texas in Arlington however manages to strike the balance between big and intimate, with its 150-seater 60' dome, run with the new Digistar 4 system from Evans and Sutherland. 6 DLPs run the planetarium, and once the lights and other effects are plugged back in, they will have quite the venue.

In fact, Arlington Planetarium has managed to do many different things within its walls - for example, $300 will get a couple two hours under the stars, dinner and wine for the perfect romantic evening. A brilliant use of the space (no pun intended) and so simple to boot. Then again there is something to be said for having an open central aisle for that kind of event to take place.

As the planetarium is part of the university, it benefits from being a university department, and so equipment can be requisitioned as and when other departments are finished with it. This has very much helped with keeping the computers powerful enough to handle the transition from D3 to D4. The whole planetarium is finishing its upgrade, so that there will be more exhibits outside for visitors. At present they have screens linked to a nationwide science reporting system, which does a very good job.

The shows tend to be an hour long - sometimes all presenter-led, sometimes beginning with a presenter-led night sky segment, then going on to an automated show. This works very well, and with a planetarium this size it's easy to put on fewer shows. Another point is that the planetarium team itself is quite small - only 3 people - but with a university there, it's easy to get students in to train up as educators.

Students are a great source of audience too; at the beginning of the year the planetarium offers cut-price tickets for students, as well as other such benefits. Live music nights and party evening use the aforementioned lights. It's an excellent resource, and it seems to be well used too. In fact, the astronomy department uses the smaller planetarium on site for labs and teaching, leaving the larger one for shows. In general a public show will only just more than half fill the place, which is a shame. It deserves to be a lot fuller.

The Planetarium at UT Arlington is a really great facility and very much worth the while to visit if in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I'm much indebted to Amy Barraclough for showing me around and explaining the great things that the planetarium has done and will continue to do. Great stuff.

Texas update

Over the past ten days I have been in Austin, and have not had an opportunity to do any serious reviewing. I have however visited the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and seen behind-the-scenes thanks to a family contact there. This wasn't, however, a proper tour so I can do no more than to recommend it highly and invite you to read my thoughts at my personal blog, entitled 'Friday 6th - Houston'.

Austin is currently the only major city in the country without a planetarium, and sadly I haven't been able to meet up with Torvald Hessel, the man behind the big push to put this straight. I am very much in favour of getting astronomy and science education out to the public, so the fact that I wasn't able to meet up is a great shame. He recently received a delivery of an inflatable planetarium, and this is a step in the right direction. You can find his website in the links on the right-hand side of this blog.

Finally, I would like to draw readers' attentions to the map of the places mentioned in this blog. This can be found at http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107633271721151543513.00048d074e5db514ef336&ll=37.09024,-80.683594&spn=31.839416,56.513672&z=4 or from the links on the right-hand side.