Friday Night at the Museum

Last night we went to the Children's Imagination Workshop in Old Town. Every Friday night they have a different special event and this one was called "Hot Starry Night." This particular event was very popular and they did a spectacular job putting the whole thing together.

The first thing we did when we got there was a scavenger hunt. There was a list of things to find and questions to answer all over the museum about astronomy. We found hidden treasures in the black-lit maze, a solar system on the ceiling, constellations in the dining room, an experimental Black Hole in the kitchen, and "Beaker" (their little mascot) dressed in a space suit and floating in the "Lonnng Hallway."

Then, we went into the dining room to work on crafts. Kids and adults were putting together a circular star chart, colored planets, and played with electricity (some people got a little static shock - but that was on purpose and they wanted to).

After that we went into the music room. An astronomer put on a presentation about what we'll be able to see in the night sky and explained what and where all the different celestial bodies are.

When the museum closed at 7:30, we went up to the antique store on Fourth Street. This time, Ashley got involved in a hula hooping contest! She's getting better and better at it. This time she had the hula hoop going around her neck and then she tried getting two hula hoops going at the same time around her body. She actually had them going for a few seconds! Then, we danced together, she jumped around in a jumper with a bunch of other kids, and then "Dynamite Dave" made butterfly wings for her with balloons.

When it got dark, we went out to the back parking lot behind the museum. The astronomers had set up about a half dozen telescopes pointed at all different objects for us to experience. I took some pictures with my cell phone looking through the telescopes. Above is a picture of Jupiter with one of its bright moons. I actually saw four moons, but I couldn't get a picture of all of them. There's also a decent picture of our moon. If you look at the top of it, you can see its rays. Then, there's a picture of a binary star system where they are orbiting around each other. These looked better through the telescope than the picture above. What that picture shows is two orange dots. In reality, they were quite colorful, the top one is blue and the bottom one is yellow.

That was such an amazing night! We got to experience the wonders of heaven and earth together in one beautiful night in Old Town. We're looking forward to going there next Friday night to add more wonderful memories to our treasured collection.

Enjoy!