Smart things to do with kids in Chicago

Northeast corner of Northerly Island

Atwood Sphere

All Chicago’s museums offer a great deal for residents, but for children they can be  a history lesson, an adventure, an opportunity to explore and above all, an inspiration. The Adler Planetarium lets kids travel to the universe .

Situated at the northeast corner of Northerly Island, the original building, a 12-sided polygon with a copper dome, opened its bronze doors in May of 1930.

Modifications and additions have seen the planetarium landscape change much like the skyline that one sees from the building’s entrance.  The most notable addition:  the Sky Pavilion, a 60,000 square foot steel and glass structure that opened a host of features to the public: exhibition galleries, the Star Rider theater focusing on virtual environments to actively explore the universe, the historic Atwood Sphere that moves on an axis to introduce the small audience sitting inside to constellations in the sky.

22 ft telescope, circa 16

Home to one of the finest antique collections of sundials, telescopes and more, Adler goes beyond, well beyond, with a goal to be the world's leading public center for interpreting and inspiring the exploration of the Universe. To achieve part of that goal, The Adler has created the most technically enhanced theater experiences ever developed.

Star Formation

Three theaters take children and adults into the universe with ultra high-definition seamless images giving them a 360-degree experience that only actual space travel can surpass. Exploding stars, black holes, galaxies, planets, supernovas. It’s like being on the flight deck of a starship mission. And the mission is always changing from the solar system, to cosmic wonders even a sky adventure with Big Bird, or the earth, moon and sun with Coyote, a fun character adapted from Native American oral traditions.

Explorer Club activity

But The Adler is even more. It’s research. Astronomy. It’s the Doane Observatory with the largest publicly accessible telescope in the Midwest.  It’s the Adler after dark for 20+ somethings every third Thursday of the month. It’s a hangout for teens on Wednesdays. It’s Explorer Clubs for kids. It’s Adler sleepovers and summer camps and intern programs. It’s a week of Geek. It’s interactive multimedia exhibitions. It’s hands-on learning.

It’s an awesome environment to challenge and inspire kids.

Visit www.AdlerPlanetarium.org to learn more about current programming, membership and transportation options.

*In 1928, Max Adler, a senior officer and early stockholder in Sears, Roebuck and Company, opted to invest a part of his fortune to build a facility for Chicagoans that would become the Adler Planetarium. He had been intrigued by a European device and method that could opticallycreate the illusion of a night sky on the inner surface of a dome.