The Adler ‘Scope

LUNAR MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS In November 1609, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) set out to study the Moon using a recent invention he had heard about a few months prior, and had been playing with ever since: the telescope. According to the principles of Aristotelian cosmology, which still prevailed at the time, the celestial bodies (including the […]

Cover Photo Credit: Chris Smith For decades NASA’s plans for human space exploration have focused on Mars as the preeminent target. However, in December 2017, the Trump administration issued a national policy directive through its freshly reconstituted Space Council calling for a return to the Moon—not just with Apollo-style landings, but “for long-term exploration and […]

Bright stars and planets, meteors, an eclipse, a “Supermoon,” and a close approach by the Sun are all expected during January 2019. In evening twilight this month, the planet Mars is high in the southern skies. The night of the 12th, it appears near a waxing crescent Moon. Each evening Mars appears higher in the […]

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 […]

Author: Annie Vedder (Former Curator of Experience) It takes a great deal of confidence to make our visions reality. I understand this firsthand because, like so many people, I’ve had ambitious ideas, but had no idea how to make them come to fruition. In 2014, I had the opportunity to update the exhibit about Captain […]

Yolanda V. Guest Services Shift Supervisor  What do you enjoy the most about working at the Adler? What I enjoy most about working at the Adler is leading a great team on a daily basis and watching them give our guests memorable experiences. What is one of your favorite memories from your time at the […]

This December, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon, one of the most amazing journeys of exploration in human history. This was the first time humans ever ventured away from Earth’s immediate vicinity, and the first time anyone saw both sides of the Moon with their own eyes. On […]

[Header Image: This collage of solar images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows how observations of the sun in different wavelengths of light helps highlight different aspects of the sun’s surface and atmosphere. Credit: NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center.] The Sun looks pretty boring, right? It’s just a glowing ball in the sky that doesn’t […]

Have you ever seen a comet in the night sky? I suspect most of the people reading this haven’t. It’s not that there aren’t a lot of comets in the Solar System—more than 5,000 have been discovered so far and several dozen can be spotted using very large telescopes each year—but because most comets are […]

It’s strange to imagine, but humans left the vicinity of the Earth for the first time just 50 years ago this month. The Apollo 8 flight was an incredible feat of exploration that required astronauts to navigate using sextants and radio signals. Highlights from this 6-day mission include the successful (and difficult) placement of the […]