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cattitude's birthday, he and I went out to the New York Hall of Science, which is in Flushing Meadow Park (the old World's Fair grounds, in Queens). They are midway through refurbishing, which means I saw an unusual sign: "Rocket Reconstruction". Specifically, they are repairing an Atlas rocket with a Mercury capsule as its payload, and a Titan II with a replica Gemini capsule (more info at the Hall of Science Website). There's construction fencing around it, but we got a good view through the gate, including of ladders up to (or maybe into) the bottoms of both rockets.
The main things on the second floor are a selection of scientific photos, mostly insects, microbes, and Hubble images; an auditorium; and a weird artwork, 10 Kilometer Radius, photos of the 72 points (5%deg; apart) and ten kilometers from the building, including graffiti, flags, a bird in flight, and quite a bit of water. (I liked it, but I'm not at all sure it was correctly labeled "sculpture".) We went into the auditorium for a show about electricity and lightning--fun, but definitely aimed at children. I wanted a bigger van de Graaf generator: most of the audience volunteer's hair stayed flad to her head.
Downstairs, we played with light and soap bubbles and simple machines and such. Good, as small science museums go. I liked the place a lot when I was a child: I suspect the difference is in my expectations, rather than the quality of the exhibits: I know much of what they're teaching and because I've been to other science museums since. But a device that produces a vertical sheet of soap bubble, about ten feet wide and up to six feet high, is fun no matter what, and the Carnegie Museum has given them some fine glass model animals.
cattitude's birthday, he and I went out to the New York Hall of Science, which is in Flushing Meadow Park (the old World's Fair grounds, in Queens). They are midway through refurbishing, which means I saw an unusual sign: "Rocket Reconstruction". Specifically, they are repairing an Atlas rocket with a Mercury capsule as its payload, and a Titan II with a replica Gemini capsule (more info at the Hall of Science Website). There's construction fencing around it, but we got a good view through the gate, including of ladders up to (or maybe into) the bottoms of both rockets.The main things on the second floor are a selection of scientific photos, mostly insects, microbes, and Hubble images; an auditorium; and a weird artwork, 10 Kilometer Radius, photos of the 72 points (5%deg; apart) and ten kilometers from the building, including graffiti, flags, a bird in flight, and quite a bit of water. (I liked it, but I'm not at all sure it was correctly labeled "sculpture".) We went into the auditorium for a show about electricity and lightning--fun, but definitely aimed at children. I wanted a bigger van de Graaf generator: most of the audience volunteer's hair stayed flad to her head.
Downstairs, we played with light and soap bubbles and simple machines and such. Good, as small science museums go. I liked the place a lot when I was a child: I suspect the difference is in my expectations, rather than the quality of the exhibits: I know much of what they're teaching and because I've been to other science museums since. But a device that produces a vertical sheet of soap bubble, about ten feet wide and up to six feet high, is fun no matter what, and the Carnegie Museum has given them some fine glass model animals.
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