Tuesday, January 24 11:32 am
Fly through the Hayden Planetarium dome at this month’s Astronomy Live! program. © AMNH/C. Chesek
On Tuesday, January 31, visit the Hayden Planetarium to see stunning images from past NASA missions combined with visualizations from the Digital Universe Atlas, a scientifically accurate 3D map of the cosmos. Starting at 6:30 pm, Emily Rice, a research scientist in the Museum’s Department of Astrophysics, and Brian Levine, an astrophysics educator in the Department of Education, will fly you through the solar system to see where NASA spacecraft have gone, where they might go in the future, and what we might learn about our solar system from these missions as part of NASA Missions, this month’s Astronomy Live event. Rice and Levine recently answered a few questions about their experiences in the dome and their favorite NASA milestones.
How does the Digital Universe Atlas help you understand the cosmos and relay that information to others?
Emily Rice: When I first started using the Digital Universe, it was mind-blowing. I had been studying astronomy for over 10 years, but as a research scientist, I hadn’t realized how I had developed a functional but not necessarily accurate view of the cosmos. I could quote the numbers, but I couldn’t immediately describe how that would look. The Digital Universe Atlas takes all that data and translates it into very accurate visualizations that are simply astounding—one glimpse is really worth a thousand words.
Brian Levine: The planetarium is an important tool in our classes and programs as well. It enables us to extend well beyond what our audience can learn by reading and looking at pictures. The scale of the immensity of the universe has always been an important point in my lessons, and by flying around inside this data set, we can see just how big the Earth is in comparison to everything else. Turns out we’re really small, but that’s just the beginning—the universe is full of interesting things, and the best way to learn about it is to visualize it. Read more »
Monday, November 28 1:54 pm
© AMNH
The Digital Universe Atlas, a scientifically accurate 3D atlas of the known universe assembled and maintained by scientists at the Museum’s Hayden Planetarium, gives audiences the chance to “fly” through space. On Tuesday, November 29, Digital Universe Manager Brian Abbott and research scientist Jackie Faherty will lead the Grand Tour of the Universe. The program, which starts at 6:30 pm, will take viewers to nearby stars, exoplanets, and the most distant objects known in the cosmos, revealing where Earth is in the universe and how it came to be. Abbott recently answered a few questions about his experiences presenting in the Dome.
How long did it take you to learn how to “fly” through the universe in the Dome?
Learning to navigate in the Dome is not straightforward. It takes a few weeks of training to learn the subtleties of being an effective guide. Beyond learning the software, which can be done on a flat screen, one must learn to be mindful of the view from every perspective in the concentrically oriented planetarium. It’s the universe-in-the-round, and everyone ought to have a good view. Read more »
Friday, October 14 9:05 am
A lunar elevator is one of technologies featured in the upcoming exhibition Beyond Planet Earth. © AMNH/M. Garlick
The Museum’s upcoming exhibition Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration features some spectacular technologies and missions—from a space elevator to the terraforming of Mars—that have been the staple of science fiction for the last 50 years, inspiring generations of students. Today, what was once limited to the realm of science fiction is being discussed by leading researchers and engineers as not-too-distant possibilities.
And so, for the first time ever, the Museum is headed to New York Comic Con (October 13 through October 16), this weekend’s highly anticipated convention. Our booth will feature a preview of Beyond Planet Earth and a mini-planetarium where visitors can enjoy a flight through the universe narrated by Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson, with visualizations based on the Digital Universe Atlas, an authentic map of the observable cosmos maintained at the Museum.
On Saturday, October 15, Beyond Planet Earth curator Michael Shara will host a panel and screening at Comic Con to discuss what the movies have gotten right—and wrong—about space travel and technology.
See you at Comic Con!
Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration opens Saturday, November 19. Click here to buy tickets, find out about the Beyond Planet Earth video contest, preview the Beyond Planet Earth Augmented Reality App, and more.
Tuesday, July 05 10:40 am
The celestial phenomenon Manhattanhenge returns next week to gives denizens a dazzling view of the setting Sun perfectly aligned with the city’s grid.
Join Jackie Faherty, a research scientist in the Museum’s Department of Astrophysics, for a special preview in the Hayden Planetarium on Tuesday, July 12. The program will include a visual explanation of Manhattenhenge using the state-of-the-art Zeiss Mark IX star projector and the Museum’s Digital Universe atlas, a four-dimensional atlas of the cosmos.
Before sunset on July 12 and 13, position yourself looking west on such clear cross streets as 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, and 57th, among others, to watch for striking photographic opportunities as the Sun drops to the horizon across the Hudson River.
Share your photographs with the Museum by uploading them to Flickr and tagging them “Manhattanhenge” for a chance to win two tickets to an Astronomy Live program in the Hayden Planetarium. Photos must be posted by 11:59 pm on Thursday, July 14, to be considered. The Museum’s panel of judges, led by Director of the Hayden Planetarium Neil deGrasse Tyson, will select one winner.
Manhattanhenge takes its name from the pre-historic circle of large vertical rocks known as Stonehenge, in the Salisbury Plain of England. For Stonehenge, the special day is the summer solstice, when the Sun rises in perfect alignment with several of the stones, signaling the change of season.
Wednesday, June 23 11:36 am
Denton Ebel. © Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com
Here’s your chance to catch a glimpse of the Museum’s out-of-public-view fifth floor — and more!
A few weeks ago, a reporter and a photographer from Wired.com came to the American Museumof Natural History for a whirlwind tour. But this was not your typical visit to check out the blue whale, Great Canoe, and T. rex. Instead, it was a rare peek behind the scenes, at the scientific offices and other facilities that visitors don’t typically see. Highlights included stops at paleontologist Neil Landman’s office and at the Museum’s imaging facility, where Landman’s assistant zoomed in on the surface of an ammonite to check fossil preservation; a visit to the fossil prep lab, where preparators painstakingly scrape each fossil from rock; a chat with meteoriticist Denton Ebel; and a look at the bank of computers that power the Museum’s Space Shows and the Digital Universe Atlas.
After a visit to Curator Mark Norell’s office (where he described how to make sushi in the Gobi) and the Exhibition Department’s studio (where artists were putting the finishing touches on penguin models that are now part of the Museum’s Race to the End of the Earth exhibition), the Wired team also explored the basement. Just past the carpentry shop, they toured the Ambrose Monell Cryo Collection, a world-class facility for storing frozen tissue specimens, with Collections Manager Julie Feinstein. And next door to the blue whale—but out of public view—they discovered the Big Bone room, which houses all of the fossils that are, well, big.
For more, check out the full gallery, “Not For Public Display: Backstage at the American Museum of Natural History,” on Wired.com.
