Sky and Telescope - March 2018 - 68

Planetarium Outreach

#AstroEverywhere

p GOODBYE, MOON Chicagoans gathered as a community on the
grass outside the Adler Planetarium on the evening of September 27,
2015, to witness a total lunar eclipse.

M A RCH 2 018 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

¢ MICHELLE B. LARSON discovered astronomy in her 20s,
when she pointed a pair of binoculars at the Moon. The stunning details visible on its craggy surface were a complete surprise, and the experience left her eager to find out what other
secrets the sky had to offer. Now, as the President and Chief
Executive Officer of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Larson
leads a talented team that helps people of all ages explore and
discover our universe.

ADLER PL ANE TARIUM (2)

resent a carnival of sky-dome engagement, and by working together, we can
Once again, taking inspiration from
pool our resources to connect with
Adler, planetariums and astronomy
audiences worldwide. This is the idea
groups are in a great position to
behind the Adler Planetarium's Kavli
feed a broad awareness of the cosFulldome Lecture Series. With support
mos through a variety of efforts
we've labeled #AstroEverywhere. For
from the Kavli Foundation, our visualexample, in the modern age of social
ization team works with frontier scienmedia, we invite you join the bandtists to produce one-of-a-kind lectures
wagon of seeing and (hash)tagging
under the dome. The experience allows
astronomy all around you. Once you
the audience (and the scientist!) to ﬂy
start looking, your eyes will be opened
through the data rather than simply
p ACCIDENTAL ASTERISM The Adler encourto astronomy in architecture, sculpstare at a graph of it.
ages its social media followers to see the unitures, and paintings, in song lyrics,
To produce such an experience is
verse in everyday objects - like this piece of hay
beer labels, and wearables. The magic
time-consuming,
and the investment
shaped like the W of Cassiopeia - and tag them
#AstroEverywhere.
of our professional medium is that
of resources demands an audience
we all share one sky, and that conlarger than the 200 we can ﬁt in our
nection is a useful outreach platform
location alone. Therefore, we decided
that can awaken the inner explorer as
to take the carnival metaphor serimuch as it can feed the inner child (a child who just wants to
ously and deliver each Kavli Fulldome Lecture as a simultane#AstroEverywhere-tag some Cassiopeia-shaped rabbit hay) -
ous live broadcast to planetariums across the country and
no matter your actual age!
around the globe. Thus far, we've partnered with sites in 27
Our connection under a dome sky can be just as powerful
states and 6 countries for live fulldome lectures and audience
as our connection under the real one. The planetarium dome
Q&A with the scientists. Each lecture is also viewable live, in
can be viewed as a ﬁgurative big tent, and as planetarium
360 degrees, with a Google Cardboard virtual-reality viewer
dome operators, we're in a unique position to welcome everyand a smartphone (or simply on a ﬂat screen) via YouTube.
one under it and deliver on our promise of #AstroEverywhere.
Through the YouTube channel, we're able to reach audiences
While each planetarium has its own tent, collectively, we repwithout access to a planetarium dome, including patients in
children's hospitals and students in rural communities and
inner-city neighborhoods. #AstroEverywhere, indeed.
That Adler's vision has evolved over these 88 years to
include the engagement of audiences both near and far is a
remarkable demonstration of the inspirational role planetariums can play in the modern age. Too often we're called upon
to augment formal education when our greatest impact lies
in complementing classroom instruction with the inspiration
and wonder necessary to drive us to learn more. As informal
educators, we must embrace our role to ignite a spark of discovery within, to awaken the inner explorer in everyone.
When our guests run out the front door begging for
someone to teach them algebra because they have a planet to
discover, we'll take it as evidence of a job well done. When
we inspire someone to #LookUp and wonder, we facilitate a
cosmic connection that will launch society into a promising future, one empowered citizen at a time. When we all
#LookUp together, the sky's no longer the limit.

Sky and Telescope - March 2018

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