When I was a little girl in elementary school, we went to the Dyer Observatory for a field trip. I’ve seriously been wanting to go back there ever since then. So, I was so excited to be able to take my three elementary school aged boys there today, meeting up with our longtime adventuring friends…the Pomerantzes…for a (FREE) open house and tour.
First, we checked out the star model display in the lobby (“an interactive model that displays the positions of the 100 nearest and 100 brightest starts in the night sky”). Next, we climbed the stairs to see the Seyfert Telescope, where we learned about the telescope and got to take turns looking into it to see a star named “Beetle Juice”, which is a part of the Orion constellation. Then, we met in the library to look at the Hubble Space Telescope model, the observatory’s original planetarium dome, and a collection of meteorites and tektites. Afterwards, we gathered outside to hear about the sundial. Last, we followed a wood chip path to check out the solstice and equinox alignment stones and see the star chamber (“the only such installation of a camera-obscura and sundial in the world”).
I think Jonas enjoyed it the most…he said it was really cool and thanked me for taking him. Roman was triggered somehow sensory-wise and teetering on meltdown territory pretty much the whole time, but he was able to pull through it and I was still able to take in as much of the tour as possible. So, we’ll call it a success.
