Astronomy tourism in Wisconsin

Mention Wisconsin to someone and their first thought might have something to do with cheese, bratwurst, or the Green Bay Packers. I’d suggest adding stargazing to the list after learning of some great resources during a recent trip to Milwaukee. I paid a visit to the Milwaukee Public Museum, where the The Daniel M. Soref National Geographic Dome Theater & Planetarium has just been upgraded to a Digistar 6 computer projection system.

Cool planetarium shows

I saw the museum’s planetarium show titled, “Did An Asteroid Really Kill the Dinosaurs?” It was a visually stunning show that left one feeling that T-Rex and the killer asteroid were actually in the room.

“We produced that, we wrote it, and put it up on the dome, and that’s because we had a big dinosaur exhibit,” explained Bob Bonadurer, director of the theater and planetarium, who added that they create many of their own original programs. He noted that the answer to the question in the show’s title is yes—for now.

“There’s lot of debate about volcanic eruptions possibly contributing to the death of the dinosaurs,” Bonadurer said. “Science always changes with new evidence, and we point that out at the end of the show.”

“Did An Asteroid Really Kill the Dinosaurs?” has since closed, but the planetarium is running two other astronomy-related shows along with its staple “Wisconsin Stargazing,” which looks at what’s up in the sky each month.

Bonadurer said its not all that common to find a planetarium that also has 2D and 3D movies.

“A lot of planetariums stand alone,” he noted. “Our planetarium is part of the big dome theater.”
The recent upgrade has brought even brighter, sharper resolution to the screen.

“With the astronomy software we’ll be able to take the audience on much more engaging trips throughout the cosmos,” Bonadurer said.

Stargazing in Wisconsin

Milwaukee and Wisconsin have active amateur astronomy communities. There are a half dozen astronomy clubs in the greater Milwaukee area, and the Astronomical League lists 14 affiliated clubs in the state.

“Those astronomy clubs are great to work with,” Bonadurer said. “They help us out with events such as eclipses, and, for example, the Mercury transit back in May.”

As with any big city, Milwaukee has problems with light pollution, but Bonadurer said there’s plenty of good stargazing to the north of town. Newport State Park, about 90 miles north-northeast of Green Bay, is a candidate for International Dark-Sky Park status with the International Dark-Sky Association.

“Like any metro area, we tell our planetarium audiences yes, take the drive, 40-50 miles, get away from the street lights,” Bonadurer said. “It’s a tall order, but do it because it’s worth it.”

“Planetarium skies are nice, but they obviously don’t hold a candle to the real sky,” he added. “We want people to get out there under the real sky.”

Total solar eclipse

Next August 21, when a total solar eclipse crosses the United States, Milwaukee will see the Sun obscured by just 85 percent. The Milwaukee Public Museum will offer programs to help people safely view the partial eclipse in town, and is also sponsoring a five-day eclipse road trip to get people into the totality.

Bob Bonadurer. Photo: Twitter.

“We’ve got our hotel rooms booked as a lot of planetariums or astronomers do,” Bonadurer said. “We’re usually on the leading edge of all this in getting the public excited.”

Bonadurer, who has seen four total eclipses of the Sun, will lead the tour, which will be able to take about 110 people to the eclipse.

“This will, I hope, reignite a little passion about eclipses in America, because it’s been a long time,” he said. “It’s the first one to sweep across America in 99 years, because for the one in ’79, only a small portion of America got to see it.”

Yerkes Observatory

Astronomy buffs visiting Wisconsin will also want to check out the historic Yerkes Observatory about 50 miles southwest of Milwaukee in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. The observatory, often called the birthplace of modern astrophysics, was founded by George Ellery Hale and has been the research home of Edwin Hubble and a veritable who’s who of astronomers. Check out our article about a visit to Yerkes during the 2012 Astronomical League Conference.

Bonadurer offers this advice to stargazers in Wisconsin and everywhere:

“Keep looking up, see that eclipse,” he suggests. “Get away from the street lights and enjoy this incredible universe.”

Dispatch from Chicago: ALCon, day three

Attendees of the Astronomical League conference were fortunate
enough to visit the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin
July 6. Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

After an eight-year wait I finally got a look inside Yerkes Observatory, the University of Chicago facility in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. The intrepid travelers who are the attendees of the national conference of the Astronomical League visited Yerkes July 6, the third day of the conference.

My wait was eight years because in 2004 I attended another business conference just a hop and a skip away in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The observatory was closed during the entire time I was here, and I hadn’t had an excuse to pass through the area since. In fact, the Yerkes trip was one of the major draws of the conference for me.

Yerkes bills itself as “the birthplace of modern astrophysics.” It was founded in 1897 by George Ellery Hale and William Harper, president of the Univerisity of Chicago at the time, and financed by Chicago railroad magnate Charles Tyson Yerkes. It was great to share the same space as some of the greats. Names who have worked at Yerkes include Hubble, Burnham, Barnard, Nichols, Ross, Struve, Morgan, Kuiper, Adams, and Wright. Einstein paid a visit to Yerkes in 1921. The 60-foot-long telescope with 40-inch lenses was the biggest refractor ever made for astronomy. Building bigger lenses just wasn’t practical. The Alvan Clark instrument makes the one in the UW’s Theodor Jacobsen Observatory look like a pipsqueak! Hale eventually lured many of the big names out west to look through even bigger reflecting scopes at Mt. Wilson.

The 40-inch Alvan Clark refractor, 60-feet long, is the biggest
refractor ever used successfully in astronomy. Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

It was super cool to visit Yerkes and soak in its history, and also to learn about some of the work being done there to improve the astronomy experience for the visually and hearing impaired.

The morning was filled with talks, including one by Astronomy magazine editor Dave Eicher, who also has been here blogging. You can read his dispatches of day one, day two, and day three and see if you think he’s having as much fun as I am!

After the Yerkes tour we went to Ravinia for an outdoor chamber music concert by the Emerson String Quartet, a star-b-que, and a bit of observing before heading back to HQ for a little shuteye. Had our timing been a little better we could have attended quite a contextually appropriate concert: The Chicago Symphony will perform “The Planets” by Gustav Holst on July 31.

Tonight the Astronomy Magazine Blues Band plays to highlight the ALCon banquet and awards ceremony.

Astronomy, theatre, baseball, and the blues

In addition to gazing at stars, Seattle Astronomy loves theatre, baseball, and the blues. So when I found out today that this year’s Astronomical League convention in Chicago includes visits to the Yerkes Observatory and Adler Planetarium, a play, and a gig by the rockin’ Astronomy Magazine Blues Band, I started making plans to visit the Windy City on the Fourth of July.

The Astronomy Magazine Blues Band will play a couple of
sets on the final day of this year's Astronomical League Convention
in Chicago. The band, L-R, is Mike Soliday, Jeff Felbab, Keith
Bauer, and Astronomy editor Dave Eicher.
Photo: Astronomy Magazine Blues Band.

I have to admit that AlCon 2012 wasn’t even on my radar until this item turned up in my newsreader this morning. The notion that Astronomy magazine staffers have a blues band covering the likes of Hendrix, Cream, The Band, Koko Taylor, Muddy Waters, and more was just so mind-bogglingly cool that I immediately started investigating the event. It turns out that there is a lot of fun stuff to do in connection with the convention. I love a good astronomy lecture more than most guys, but the real fun is in the extracurricular activities.

July 4 features a field trip to the Adler Planetarium and the Field Museum of Natural History. We paid a visit to Adler in November 2010 during a Chicago layover on a cross-country train trip. It’s chock full of great stuff, including lots of Apollo 13 memorabilia from Jim Lovell, who is a trustee of Adler and now runs a steak house in the Chicago area. The planetarium itself was closed for renovations during our last visit, so I’m looking forward to a longer stay, to seeing a planetarium show, and to tacking the Field Museum onto the itinerary.

The next day features a road trip to Batavia and Fermilab, where conventioneers will learn about particle physics and dark matter, and then see the play Creation’s Birthday, which is all about understanding the science and philosophies of 100 years ago. Characters include Edwin Hubble, Henrietta Leavitt, Father Georges Lemaitre, and Albert Einstein. The convention materials describe presenter Hassam Padamsee as a “playwright and CERN scientist”, a description that puts me in mind of today’s drive to educate scientists and engineers at the expense of education in the arts. As noted above we love science and arts, and don’t think they’re mutually exclusive.

July 6 is the day for the field trip to Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, and a look at the famed Alvin Clark 40-inch refractor. About eight years ago I attended a business meeting in Lake Geneva, just a hop and a skip away. Unfortunately, Yerkes was closed during my entire time there. The observatory is only open for public tours on Saturdays, so we’re lucky to get a look on a Friday with the AL group.

Finally on Saturday the Astronomical League holds its awards banquet and the Astronomy Magazine Blues Band plays a couple of sets. It all happens July 4-7 at the Lincolnshire Marriott Resort in the North Chicago suburbs. Registration materials are online here. If you can’t make it, Seattle Astronomy will likely be on hand and will post dispatches (if there’s time amid all the fun!)

Oh, yes, and there is baseball. The Cubs are on the road during this week, but the White Sox are at home. I expect I’ll sneak away for a ballgame.

Seattle Astronomy may well be a dork, but this sounds like a heavenly trip. And Astronomical League, take note: the sale was made by a blues band!