We are going to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space
Museum for Family Astronomy Night.
The Intrepid Museum is an aircraft carrier
that floats on the Hudson River.
The Museum is on West 46th Street and 12th
Avenue in Manhattan. When we arrive, we will
see busy roads with cars and bikes.
Photo of Intrepid from across
the West Side Highway
A security guard will ask us to walk through
a metal detector.
There will be events in the Space Shuttle
Pavilion. If we want, we can watch them.
If it is too crowded or we do not want to watch,
we can go to the flight deck or pier, where it is
less crowded. We can stargaze, talk to
astronomers and look through telescopes.
On the pier, we can visit the NASA Orbit
Pavilion. Inside, we can hear sounds that
represent satellites orbiting Earth.
Dan Goods/NASA
We can look through telescopes brought by
volunteers. Telescopes help us see things that are
far away, like stars and planets.
We will take turns. If there is a long line at one telescope,
we can go to another one. The telescopes will be up on
the flight deck, but there may be some on the pier, too.
We will use the stairs or elevator to go from the
pier up to the flight deck on the top of the ship.
We will walk across a metal bridge called a
gangway. It connects the stairs and elevator
to the ship.
We can visit the Space Shuttle Pavilion to
see the space shuttle orbiter Enterprise.
There, we can see a special exhibition about
the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA/ESA
This telescope orbits Earth and takes pictures of deep
space.
At 7:30pm, an astrophysicist named Steve B.
Howell will talk about exoplanets.
Exoplanets are planets that are outside our solar system.
At 8:15pm, there is a performance of Space
Panorama. Andrew Dawson uses his hands and
music to re-create the 1969 Apollo 11 moon
landing.
We can watch a video of the performance here: https://vimeo.com/10348218.
If we need to take a break, we can…
• Find a quiet space on the flight deck
• Find a quiet space on the pier
– We can eat snacks that we bring with us here.
• Visit the “Training Pool,”
an exhibit in the Space
Shuttle Pavilion (with
calming underwater sounds
and projections)
• Go to the restrooms located on the pier
People who work at the Museum can help us.
Security guards wear white shirts with a badge.
We can also ask people who wear red, yellow or
black Intrepid Museum shirts.
For more information
• Family Astronomy Night:
http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/astronomynights.aspx
• Intrepid Museum access programs and resources:
http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/access.aspx
• Amateur Astronomers Association of New York:
http://www.aaa.org/
• Dr. Steve B. Howell:
http://kepler.nasa.gov/Mission/team/so/steveHowell/
• Space Panorama:
http://andrewdawson.info/wp/2012/07/28/spacepanorama/
• NASA Orbit Pavilion: http://www.space.com/29522-nasasatellites-sing-world-science-festival.html