Adler Planetarium

Adler Planetarium Review

Navigate your way through the solar system with interactive and state-of-the-art exhibits that appeal to planetarium traditionalists as well as technology-savvy kids and adults. The museum uses computer games, videos, short films, and hands-on devices to teach physics and astronomy basics like the Doppler effect. Two different planetariums and a 3-D theater unlock the mysteries of the stars.

Highlights

The Adler's traditional in-the-round planetarium, reborn in 2011 as the Grainger Sky Theater, draws visitors into an immersive deep space experience using an ultra-high-definition screen. Viewers observe the cosmos from aboard the observation deck of a high-tech starship.

Peer through Chicago's largest public telescope at the Duane Observatory, located outside of and behind the main museum building. It gathers 5,000 times more light than the human eye, so filters are used to reduce the brilliant glare of the moon.

See the restored Gemini 12, the spacecraft flown by Captain Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin in 1966, in the permanent exhibit "Shoot for the Moon." A collection of space artifacts once owned by Lovell is also on exhibit.

Take a digital journey into space in the Definiti Space Theater, inside the high-tech Sky Pavilion, or don your 3-D glasses to view celestial phenomena in the 3-D Universe Theater.

Tips

Additional charges apply for Grainger Sky Theater and Definiti Space Theater shows (both are included in package prices), but don't skip them—they're the reason to go.

Take a quick (free) ride in the Atwood Sphere, a large metal globe with punched-out stars. It provided the nation's very first planetarium experience.

No need to purchase the museum's audio tour. The signs in the museum are comprehensive, and the narrative doesn't add much to the experience.

Monday through Saturday 2-3 pm, the museum's Space Visualization Lab (a working laboratory where scientists, technicians, and artists drum up new ways to explore the universe) is open to the public.