Summer may be winding down, but don’t worry: the Museum is open during Labor Day weekend, and a world of wonder awaits! Here are some tips for what to see on this three-day weekend in New York City:
Deep Dive into the Oceans
Who needs the beach when you can start your day gazing up at a 94-foot-long blue whale? The star of the 29,000-square-foot Milstein Hall of Ocean Life is just one of more than 750 sea critters featured in this gallery, from glowing jellyfish to racing dolphins to the locked-in-battle giant squid and sperm whale. Then, head over to the LeFrak Theater for a 3D showing of Oceans: Our Blue Planet, a riveting giant-screen film about the least explored habitat on Earth.
[Bow of a large ship cuts through the open ocean.]
[MUSIC; SOUNDS OF SHIP CUTTING THROUGH WATER]
NARRATOR: It is the largest and least explored place on earth.
[SEA BIRDS CALLING; DOLPHINS VOCALIZING]
[A pod of dolphins swims in shallow water; a school of fish swarms through kelp.]
NARRATOR: Home to the most extreme, most exotic animals ever discovered.
[BBC Earth and OCEANX Media logos appear. A huge school of fish forms a swirling column; another pod of dolphins swims down from the ocean surface.]
NARRATOR: A vast uncharted world, critical to sustaining life on our planet.
[A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is lowered into the ocean, descends past a school of fish, and explores the dark seafloor]
NARRATOR: Continuous scientific advancements allow us to go further into the ocean depths than ever believed possible.
[UNDERWATER EQUIPMENT SOUNDS, WATER RUSHING AS FISH SWIM BY, DRAMATIC MUSIC CRESCENDOS]
[A diver swims above a coral reef; Small blue fish swim through a colorful coral reef; Fish swim through long stalks of kelp.]
NARRATOR: Join an oceanic adventure into the depths, on a journey through vibrant coral cities and enchanted underwater forests.
[A diver swims with three sperm whales.]
NARRATOR: Come face to face with gentle giants…
[A toothed-fish picks up a shell in its mouth and launches it at a closed clam.]
NARRATOR: …and the smartest fish in the sea.
[OTTER MAKES SNORTING SOUND]
[An otter emerges from the ocean surface; Another otter floats on its back holding a pup.]
NARRATOR: Experience our blue planet in a breathtaking immersive cinema event.
[SOUND OF WAVES CRASHING]
[A ship approaches large glaciers; two walruses float on a piece of sea ice; a pod of dolphins breaches the water surface; a large group of sharks swims slowly; a group of small fish swims away from a humpback whale.]
NARRATOR: Experience Oceans.
[Shimmering ocean surface. Text reads “Oceans: Our Blue Planet.”]
[MUSIC]
Visit the Tyrannosaur Family
Tour the fourth-floor fossil halls to glimpse amazing animals from the Age of Dinosaurs, from the towering Titanosaur to the iconic Tyrannosaurus rex. For the latest discoveries about the extended family of the world’s most famous dinosaur, don’t miss the special exhibition T. rex: The Ultimate Predator, which features life-sized models, a shadow theater of fighting tyrannosaurs, and an exciting multi-player VR experience that lets visitors 12 and up “build” a T. rex fossil model and see T. rex up close like never before!
[Two pairs of blue gloves appear and flex fingers in an industrial-looking white space with visible dinosaur fossils.]
[Two logos appear: 150 years of the American Museum of Natural History, and VIVE.]
VIVIAN TRAKINSKI (Director of Science Visualization, American Museum of Natural History): I think one of the opportunities of virtual reality is to really mix the
[Vivian Trakinski is shown in front of a fully fleshed out model of Tyrannosaurus rex, then in profile.]
science and the magic.
[SOARING MUSIC]
[A long-haired woman with VR headset is shown turning around. A black-and-white, pencil-sketch animation of the ceiling in the Museum’s dinosaur halls appears, with hanging lamps, as a flurry of vertebrae fossils flutter through, as though leaves blowing in the wind. Another person wearing a VR headset is shown with controllers in each hand. Nicholas Bartzokas is shown in the gallery.]
NICHOLAS BARTZOKAS (Associate Director of Science Visualization, American Museum of Natural History): VR is unique in that it can really immerse a person completely. They can get a sense of the scale of something.
[A full-color animation of a roaring Tyrannosaurus rex in a Cretaceous environment, followed by a view of three players with headsets moving around in the gallery.]
That's really important for a T. rex because T. rex is very big, and you really feel like you're there.
[A close-up on one player in a headset turning around.]
You feel like you're in the Cretaceous period, face to face with the T. rex,
[Full-color animation of the Tyrannosaurus rex in its environment, roaring and sniffing at camera. Then Nicholas Bartzokas back on camera, then a birds-eye view of the full-color animation of Tyrannosaurus rex in a leafy environment.]
and there's just no replacing that level of immersion.
[Chris Chin is shown in the gallery.]
CHRIS CHIN (Executive Director of VR Content, HTC Vive): We are all about bringing VR into education whether it be schools, libraries, and museums, we really feel that bringing this immersive technology and VR into these spaces.
[Close-up on the long-haired woman in a VR headset laughing.]
allows you to visualize, experience art, science, history, and culture
[Pencil-sketch animation of the Museum’s fossil hall, with full-color fossil bones of the leg and hip flying into place, then the vertebrae flying into place.]
in ways that you could never experience before.
[Player wearing headset is shown in the gallery looking down and lowering and raising arms with controllers.]
[Title sequence: T. Rex: Skeleton Crew. An interactive multiplayer virtual reality experience.]
[Chris Chin shown in the gallery.]
CHIN: When you think about natural history museums,
[Museum facade on Central Park West, with cars moving down the street, followed by close-up on the central banner, which reads: T. REX: THE ULTIMATE PREDATOR]
you think only of the American Museum of Natural History. It's the most iconic institution out there.
[Pan across the Allosaurus fossil mount in the Museum’s Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda, a grand space with tall ceilings, detailed ceilings, and colorful murals, followed by a sweeping shot to show the tall neck of the Barosaurus.]
[A VR player wearing a headset in an office space with posters.]
TRAKINSKI: We've been experimenting with VR for a couple of years now, knowing that it's something
[Wider shot showing VR player with colleagues on computers, monitoring the screen and watching the player, then Vivian Trakinski shown in the gallery.]
that visitors were very interested in and knowing that it's a great opportunity
[Computer animations of fossils, and close-up views of moving skeletal parts, appear on screen.]
for us to engage them in the three- and four-dimensional datasets that our scientists are working in.
[Vivian Trakinski shown in the exhibition gallery.]
When HTC Vive approached us for a potential collaboration,
[Chris Chin is shown speaking while Vivian Trakinski continues to narrate.]
we saw it as a real opportunity to move from prototyping and experimentation
[Creative team around a conference table, in active discussion.]
into full implementation.
[Close up on developer nodding and working at a computer, with another team member in the background.]
And so together,
[Vivian Trakinski shown in front of the T. rex model in the gallery.]
through this collaboration, we've been able to create a cutting-edge,
[Three players with headsets shown playing in the gallery.]
multiplayer, interactive, wireless experience.
[Close up on one of the players, in a headset, walking and raising arms with controllers in hand, then another wide shot of the three players lifting their arms to “place” fossils.]
BARTZOKAS: Social experiences bring families together. That's why they come to the Museum.
[Nick Bartzokas speaks to camera, with a poster of T. rex in the background.
So, to be able to bring them into VR,
[Scene from the pencil-sketch animation of the VR, of the three player avatars in hats and shirts working on adjacent platforms with various fossil pieces.]
and not isolate them and, instead, allow them to see each other and
[From point of view of one of the players, looking at another player’s avatar waving their floating glove “hello.” Then, a view of the three players with headsets playing in the gallery.]
experience that Cretaceous world together—that really is something
[Close-up on one player in a headset raising her arms above her head.]
that we strive for.
[Pencil-sketch animation of the room, with fossils swooping through past an avatar and a fossil skull.]
TRAKINSKI: So, once we had a creative concept, we worked very closely with the scientists
[Profile of Vivian Trakinski in the gallery, then a view of the VR players with headsets nodding to a developer who’s watching them play. One player gestures as if describing some detail of the scene she is watching. Developer looks back at her screen.]
with our T. rex model to ensure the accuracy of the placement of the bones, for instance.
[View of the pencil-sketch animation with a full-color T. rex skull, replaced by a shot of the model T. rex skull in the gallery in a near one-to-one match. A pan around the T. rex skeleton model, then a shot of the avatars in the VR experience clicking bones into place as the skull snaps its teeth.]
MARK NORELL (Division Chair and Macaulay Curator, Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History): The T. rex in the VR experience is really the same T. rex you have here.
[Mark Norell, facing camera, in the gallery.]
So, this model back here is kind of the latest and greatest,
[Pans of the T. rex model, with close-ups on the open mouth and slobbery-looking teeth.]
and we feel by far the most accurate T. rex
[Mark Norell shown in the gallery. ]
model that's ever- reconstruction that's ever been developed.
[View of pencil-sketch animation with gloves picking up large vertebra fossils and placing them on a column. Vivian Trakinski shown in gallery.]
TRAKINSKI: So, visitors will get to spend a couple of minutes actually assembling a T. rex skeleton and then
[Pencil-sketch animation showing an avatar dressed in red hat and blue shirt picking up fossil teeth and snapping them into the skull.]
thanks to the magic of virtual reality we can fully assemble that entire V. rex
[Small fossil pieces swoop in towards a nearly completed T. rex skeleton in the pencil-sketch animation of the gallery, with bones snapping into place one by one as the skeleton continues to take shape.]
skeleton and it will come to life and the visitors will be transported from a
[Vivian Trakinski shown in gallery.]
museum hall to the paleo environment, to Hell Creek, Montana where the T. rex
[Pencil-sketch animation dissolves into brown floor, Where the Wild Things Are-style, as a full-color leafy animated scene begins to emerge.]
roamed 65 million years ago.
[SOARING MUSIC]
[Ceiling and walls continue to disappear to be replaced by leafy trees, blue sky. The fully fleshed-out T. rex is shown walking and grunting.]
[T. REX GRUNT]
[Vivian Trakinski shown in gallery.]
TRAKINSKI: This VR experience brings the goals of science visualization to life as no
[Visitors in headsets shown looking up and around.]
other platform could. We were able to transport visitors back to the time of
[Close-up on a visitor in a headset.]
Tyrannosaurus rex and put them in place with the tyrannosaur.
[Full-color animation of a T. rex jumping up to try and nip a pterosaur that soars overhead.]
They can really get a sense of the scale of that enormous creature.
[Vivian Trakinski shown in gallery.]
They got a sense of what it would be like to be right face-to-face with Tyrannosaurus rex
[Animation of T. rex looking at camera, then Vivian Trakinski shown in gallery.]
and that's bringing the science to life.
[Copy appears on screen: Catch T. rex: Skeleton Crew. March 11, 2019-August 9. 2020. At the American Museum of Natural History’s exhibition T. rex: The Ultimate Predator. Logos of the American Museum of Natural History and HTC Vive appear.]
[T. REX FOOT STOMPS, HUFF]
Take a Trip Around the Universe
Start at the beginning—the very beginning—with a visit to the Big Bang Theater in the lower half of the Hayden Planetarium sphere, where you’ll learn about the birth of the universe. Then, take a walk around the Scales of the Universe to compare the sizes and scales of objects in our solar system, from the subatomic to the cosmically colossal. Finally, make your way to the Hayden Planetarium Theater to enjoy the spectacular Dark Universe Space Show, which celebrates new frontiers for exploration and delves into the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.