Astronomy and Space

The Museum of Nature & Science houses the only public planetarium in Dallas County.  Recently, we upgraded our planetarium to exploit cutting-edge 21st century technology featuring the state-of-the-art digital system, Digistar 3.  Digistar 3 system uses powerful graphics hardware and software to generate immersive images, scanned with twin DLP projectors on the interior surface of the overhead dome 

     

 

In addition to full-dome digital shows generated in the planetarium, the Planetarium building in Fair Park hosts astronomy and space exhibits, including:

ViewSpace

   
ViewSpace is an internet-fed, self-updating, permanent exhibit from the Space Telescope Science Institute, home of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope.

Astronaut Suit

 

NASA astronaut training suit, used during the Mercury-Gemini programs in the 1960’s.

Meteorite

See the only meteorite ever recovered in Dallas County, found in 1936 on James Fite’s Duncanville farm. This exhibit is on display in the Nature Building.

Lunar Rock Replicas

Our lunar rock replicas were cast from samples returned during the Apollo program in the 1970’s.

 

Plasma, the Fourth State of Matter

An interactive sphere containing ionized gases energized by high-frequency, high-voltage electricity. 

 

Light and optics

    

An introduction to Texas astronomy at the McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains.

Resources

Evans & Sutherland planetarium digital projector system: http://www.es.com/products/digital_theater/d3-family.asp

ViewSpace: http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/exhibits/self-update/viewspace/programs/

McDonald Observatory: http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/    

National Optical Astronomy Observatories: http://www.noao.edu/education/astfaq.html

Astronomical discovery timeline: http://www.spacetoday.org/History/MillenniumTimeline/MillenniumTimeline.html
 
NASA Timeline of the Universe model: http://origins.jpl.nasa.gov/library/poster/poster.html

NASA, astronomy as a profession: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/profession.html

NASA for Kids: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/home/index.html

Space Educator’s Handbook: http://www1.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/spaceid.htm

MNS is an AAM accredited institution that is the result of the merger of the Dallas Museum of Natural History, The Science Place, and the Dallas Children's Museum, supported in part by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and HP.