I was excited by our next destination. There’s nothing I like more than planetariums, observatories and science museums and this is the world’s largest radio telescope and home to the SETI project not to mention some of the most important astronomical discoveries.
Kids weren’t so thrilled. It’s a long way up to the observatory especially when accompanied by moans and groans. To make the climb interesting, the curator has put the sun and planets at their scale distances along the path with loads of interesting info all related to earth measurements. I couldn’t work out how they’d fit the whole solar system in until I realised that they stopped at Jupiter. The kids could not have cared less.
But it was a different story once we started to go round the visitor centre which is packed full of great exhibits and information. I found an exhibit that charts solar lifecycles and the formation of the elements. It was just like the one I had in the first astronomy book I had when I was just a bit older than Alex and which inspired me. I took each member of the family through it exhaustively and they got so bored, they found the other exhibits – particularly the cloud making exhibit – absolutely fascinating in contrast. We also watched a film, “A Day in the life of Arecibo Observatory” which really brought the whole thing to life. And, of course, went and exclaimed over the actual telescope itself.
I loved it and in the end, I think the kids did too.
Kids weren’t so thrilled. It’s a long way up to the observatory especially when accompanied by moans and groans. To make the climb interesting, the curator has put the sun and planets at their scale distances along the path with loads of interesting info all related to earth measurements. I couldn’t work out how they’d fit the whole solar system in until I realised that they stopped at Jupiter. The kids could not have cared less.
But it was a different story once we started to go round the visitor centre which is packed full of great exhibits and information. I found an exhibit that charts solar lifecycles and the formation of the elements. It was just like the one I had in the first astronomy book I had when I was just a bit older than Alex and which inspired me. I took each member of the family through it exhaustively and they got so bored, they found the other exhibits – particularly the cloud making exhibit – absolutely fascinating in contrast. We also watched a film, “A Day in the life of Arecibo Observatory” which really brought the whole thing to life. And, of course, went and exclaimed over the actual telescope itself.
I loved it and in the end, I think the kids did too.
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