I’m back to bring you another Weekend Wandering that I took my daughter on, it’s a week late, but this time last week I was at the hospital for surgery and I wasn’t quite up to my usual par for typing. But as I detailed in my first weekend wandering, my daughter and I are now trying to spend our weekends on adventuring through our local area and discovering the hidden treasures that are hosted by our city.
Honey I Shrunk the Solar System
For this particular weekend wandering, we took a drive out to the University of Texas at Arlington, about an hour away from where we live, to see a view a show they were hosting at the planetarium. The show was titled: Honey, I Shrunk the Solar System. If you’ve ever seen the movies of the similar title (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and others) then you’ve likely got a decent idea of what this might be about.
My daughter had never been to a planetarium before and it’s been years since the last time I went to one. She was curious that it seemed to look a lot like a theater right up until it went dark. If you’ve never been inside a planetarium before, it’s important to understand that it’s pitch black when they shut the lights off.
She was a little startled and her little hand found it’s way into mine and then the images began to play across the wall in front of us, on the ceiling above us and all around us. I heard her little intake of air and the whoosh of surprise as she exhaled. It was a spectacular image.
The Show Was Unexpected
The show focused on a science project done by a young girl that she wanted to show her father. She’d shrunk the solar system down to a representative set of billboards and objects. He had to drive from planet to planet and at each stop, we got a grand visual of the planet and the known scientific facts about it as well as some fun quiz questions.
It was a delightful way to get an introduction to the planets that comprise the solar system and I was amazed by how many of them she recognized and knew the names of. At the end of the ‘program,’ the presenter then gave us some spectacular views of the heavens as seen through telescopes and a panorama of the different constellations.
It was the first time my daughter actually saw the Milky Way outside of a picture book. All told the program aired for just 55 minutes and cost about $5 to see, but it was well worth both the time and the money spent. She’s already asked for a return to the Planetarium and she added a telescope to her list of things she’d like to ask Santa for.
Have you visited the local Planetarium in your area?
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