One of my missions this trip back
to the old New York
State
I’d gotten a list (on
Go-Astronomy.com) which gave me websites and contact numbers for the places in New York State Albany
and Plattsburgh
verified the planetariums at those places wouldn’t be available options. Albany ’s had
been closed for remodeling, and Plattsburgh ’s
was set to reopen “Summer 2013” (but not specific date). No one from
Plattsburgh ever returned my call to let me know if they were ready to receive
visitors yet, as July is about as “summer” as you can get.
That left one on my list, which was
the Museum of Innovation
and Science (also called “MiSci”) in Schenectady .
Mum had commented that a lot of the school kids had gone down there, but
she hadn’t been there. I know I hadn’t. All the times I’d come down
here to visit Tim, I can’t recall him ever mentioning it to me, so it must’ve
been built fairly recently. Located off of Nott Terrace, near Union College
When we arrived, I noted the
building seemed smaller than I expected. I remembered the size of the Mayborn
Planetarium (in Kileen , TX
The lobby was decent size, and had
a few chairs scattered about. The small gift shop was right at the
entrance, and that’s where admission tickets could be obtained. I made
sure to sign the guest book identifying myself as an “Austin Planetarium
Representative.” The gift shop was about what I expected, but I noticed
other than a few shirts and some coffee mugs, there was nothing which had this
place’s logo on it. When you’re trying to promote your location, and get
others to come, brand recognition is key to that (why do you think I had out my
business cards, with the address for this very blog on it, to anyone I meet who
seems interested).
We paid for two planetarium shows,
which were an hour apart, and had an hour before the first one even started.
There was a travelling exhibit on dinosaurs which was also currently
here. That was also helpful to see how temporary items get placed.
Entering in the circular portion of
the museum, which was the main section, we could see the entrance doors to the
actual planetarium. The planetarium was located at the center of the
circle, and the there were exhibits which circled around it. A giant
T-Rex head which was nearby became the vehicle for me to recreate a scene from Jurassic Park.
In the entrance area, there was a
prototype of a Mars rover that RPI (the local engineering college) had done.
Built back in the 1970’s, what was learned from building this was used in
the construction of the rovers currently active on the red planet. I
found that highly interesting, and a nice piece of local history.
Starting to the right past that
point (as you can’t go wrong if you go right), we entered into the section on
electrical history. Schenectady
has always been referred to as the “electric city,” and I don’t think I ever
realized why. Thomas Edison did a lot of his work here, and that lead to
the creation of the General Electric Corporation (which was one of the major
employers of the area for decades).
While some of the exhibits were the
ancient items that Edison had worked on,
others were hand-on things (like using bicycle pedals to turn on a light bulb).
This was great being able to get the science aspect as well as the local history
aspect. Nicely done.
Continuing counter-clockwise, we
came into a section on the electrical car that GE had built back in the 1970s.
As I was currently employed by General Motors (who had their own electric
vehicle in 1990s), I found this section fascinating. No bigger than the
Chevrolet Aveo is now, the GE-100 had twelve car batteries which sat on a tray
underneath the chassis. There were also videos we could watch which
showed the GE-100 in action, driving around the city, and solely going up a
hill. One of the earliest videos on the electric car engine (done back in
the mid-1960s) was hosted by Ronald Reagan.
The next section was an interactive
display produced by IBM. Giant touch-screen monitors played short videos,
or allowed you to look at graphics which showed population growth and major
technological innovations. I liked this section a lot, as this had the
potential to have so much information available. Want to learn about a
particular discipline, then start at the correct kiosk.
Beyond that was an area dealing
MRI, and various medical technology. One exhibit had a sealed tube full
of white beads, and a knob each to adjust frequencies and vibrations. By
putting the dials in different positions, you could make the beads jump in a
chaotic jumble, or in an ordered wave-like pattern, just with sound waves.
Other parts of this section had
displays on magnets, X-ray scanners, the components of a MRI machine, and an
infrared camera. That weird picture that looks like something out of
Predator’s viewfinder was me taking a picture of being taken a picture of by
the infrared camera.
Even though it was Monday late
morning, the museum wasn’t too full. There were some younger kids
scattered about, but I could hear high school students having a great time in
the next section. They were all standing in front of a monitor, doing
goofy things, and then laughing about it. What was happening here a
camera captured their images, and displayed them back about ten seconds later,
so they got to watch what they were doing. Once the kids cleared out, my
parents and I did this too, and had the same level of goofy fun.
The next half of the circle was a
wide open area devoted to various hand-on science exhibits, with the occasional
dinosaur display placed in. The dinosaurs were animatronic, and seemed to
placed in wherever there was room (as opposed to having their own area for
visiting displays). The science items were certainly geared towards the
younger audience, with things like vibrating sand, making clouds, and various
devices that showed all forms of motion. You could spin beads around a
wide funnel, and watch as the accelerated as the surface area narrowed.
One item I liked in particular was
the table with a large spinning disc, whose surface was flush with the rest of
the table. Items placed on the disc, or rolled across, would change
trajectory depending on the weight of the item, and how it came in contact with
the spin. I took a pool bar which was there, and set it in the very
center of the disc to see how long it would stay. The spin pulled it away
from the center, but not all the way off the edge. It was fun to watch
the rotating pool ball find a place of equilibrium on the spinning disc, and
for the most part stay in the same general location.
Near this
was a section which had many old style television sets (1940s models), and
information on the locally-produced “Freddie Freihofer Show” which my parents
remembered watching when they were kids. [Anyone who knows me well is
aware that the “brown box” original-style Freihofer chocolate chip cookies are
my crack, and regularly bring them back with from a trip to this region.] Dad was also intrigued by the diorama on
solar panels, and took notes so he could build some onto the house. I had
my attention captured by a small display which had the Schenectady Meteorite, a
rock which fell from space here back in 1968. This was another piece of
local history which made the visit worth while.
Since that had brought us full
circle here, we then headed over to the other side of the museum. This
section had a gallery with portraits of local scientists (many contemporaries
of Edison ), although many were obscured with
banner backdrops for the travelling dinosaur displays.
One of the things I really liked
here was prototype exoskeletons here, which GE had been trying to develop in
the 1950s. The technology of the time wasn’t compact enough to make these
practical, but it was nice to see what they were trying to produce. What I liked was how they showed some of the
concepts had used in other ways, including an AT-AT from Star Wars.
I think that yellow loader-thing Sigourney Weaver drove in Aliens
would’ve been a good addition.
The first planetarium show we saw
was on the rockets used to go to the Moon, and the second was about “cowboy
astronomers” (narrated by Texas
humorist Baxter Black). The actual auditorium was small, with about no
more than forty seats, plus the area where the presenter was (who controlled
the presentation equipment). A couple dozen slide projectors were placed
around the parameter, and projected the images up into the inside of the
planetarium’s dome. There wasn’t much animation from scene to scene, and
the noise of projectors was noticeable (as we ended up sitting next to one on
the second show).
At the conclusion of each of the
programmed portions of the show, a star field of the current night’s sky was
projected, and a presenter then did an interactive segment. Major
constellations were pointed out, and some questions were answered about specific
objects which could be seen (providing there wasn’t any light pollution
obscuring the sky). Both interactive segments were the same, which was no
surprise to me. Considering there was a
show every hour, I’d think the presenters (as there were a couple hanging
about) would take turns doing it, or at least try to do some variation during
the day (so it wouldn’t come off as being too repetitive). The presenter
we had for both shows did an excellent job, and was clearly able to be
understood.
We were able to see most of the
museum in the period we had before the first show, and the remainder before the
second. Also before the second, we took some time to look more in-depth
at things we didn’t on the first pass. There was a simulation wind tunnel
I stood in to experience “tornado force” gusts. Without anything blowing
around inside me, and no hair to get mussed up, it didn’t feel any different
riding with my car windows down.
It was a great day checking out the
museum, and I gathered a lot of information for Austin Planetarium. I
enjoyed this venue, and this was something which was worth checking out.
More information can be found on the places we visited (or
were mentioned) at:
Henry Hudson Planetarium (Albany , NY
Northcountry Planetarium (Plattsburgh , NY
Freddie
Freihofer Show: http://www.cbs6albany.com/contact_us/features/birth/stories/ed-obrien-remembers-freddie-freihofers-breadtime-stories-host-jim-fisk-10.shtml
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