The Wolff's Tale: Denver Science

On the second day of our trip we had some time to kill at the end of the day. We got into Denver a bit earlier than expected, so we decided to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We got free admission to the museum because of my staff membership at the Cincinnati Museum Center, which has reciprocity through the Association of Science and Technology Centers. We didn't have much time, but since admission was free I figured that the visit would be worth it.

We came through a storm on our way into Denver (I did really enjoy smelling the storm coming as we drove into it) but it wasn't raining (or not too hard) by the time we got to the Museum. I thought that the outside ticket purchase was pretty interesting. I wonder if it was for early mornings before the museum opens or for days with really long lines.

The entrance area was quite large. It appeared to be part of an expansion onto the original building (or buildings) to expand the inside surface area. I've seen the ticket sales areas at a good number of museums, and I thought they did a good job on the design in Denver.

The first area we explored was the Gems and Minerals permanent exhibit.

"Got your hard hat? In Coors Mineral Hall, follow the mine shaft into a Mexican silver mine, where a cavern glistens with milky white gypsum crystals and stalactites. Then enter Colorado's own Sweet Home Mine to discover a six-foot wall of blood-red rhodochrosite crystals."

"Colorado was founded on mining, and in the historical mining section you'll see more local finds, like Tom's Baby, an eight-pound nugget of crystallized gold unearthed in Breckenridge in 1887."

"You'll also uncover Brazilian topaz, California watermelon tourmaline, Australian opals, intense blue azurite, green malachite, four-inch zeolite needle sprays from India, and hundreds of other dazzling specimens from around the world. Hands-on activities and videos help young explorers learn about mineral characteristics and how minerals form."

There was far more than we could see in the short time that we had available, but we did see quite a few minerals. The florescent display was neat. I took pictures under both normal and florescent light.

Part of the exhibit was even themed like a mine.

We also saw an aquamarine display. The picture of the display isn't the clearest, but I think you can still read some of it.

After the minerals exhibit we headed into a space area that was amazing! I've enjoyed sci-fi for quite a few years, and ever since I've started working Stargazer's Nights I've been enjoying studying regular astronomy as well. I thought we might just look around this area for a minute or two (I was anxious to see the animal displays upstairs), but I could have easily spent quite a bit of time in the area.

As you emerge from an entry corridor with views of space, a dramatic Martian canyon lies to your right. To your left, dust and gas swirl in giant nebulae. This is Space Odyssey, where the universe is yours to explore-and where space news headlines are brought to life.

Above you can see part of the Mars exhibit. It shows what a future exploration base on the red planet might look like. I'm a sucker for models and exhibits like this one. I remember a space exhibit that I worked on at the Museum Center which included an area like this one (but not as nice). The oceanic earth glob was also pretty neat, even though it was an old exhibit.

One of my favourite sights through a telescope is the planet Saturn (the other is the Orion Nebula--which looks much better through the scope than any pictures that I've seen). I love seeing the rings, and I like listening to the reaction of people actually seeing the planet for the first time. Some people have even thought that it was something fake taped onto the end of the telescope. So it was with great happiness that I found the following exhibit.

But even better than the display demonstrating the changes in views of Saturn was the explanation of reflecting and refracting telescopes. People often ask me what the difference is and I can't always remember a good way to describe them, so having a display like this next one would be quite useful.

But next I saw something even better! During the live program we've developed for Stargazer's Nights we talk about the brightness of stars. Some stars are brighter, but further away than others, so they appear dimmer. A great example can be found in the Big Dipper. The text is somewhat hard to read so I'll type it below: "The lights above represent the stars of the Big Dipper in their true position in space. Do they form the familiar Big Dipper pattern from your present position? Where must you be to see the stars in the shape of the Big Dipper?" There were several of these signs spread throughout the area. When you look at the stars from a different direction they don't form the same shape because the stars are not all the same distance from the earth. The constellations are defined by their view from earth and are usually unrecognizable from other locations in space. Look for the circular white lights in the picture below. They're mostly, but not completely in the right shape. I don't remember what location I took this from.

I thought I took a video, but I can't find the file, :(. Hopefully you can understand the concept from my meager description.

The animal dioramas reminded me of the exhibits at Chicago's Field Museum. I know they're not the most popular things to have in new museums, but I really enjoy them. A well done taxidermy exhibit looks much better than something created from scratch, in my opinion, and some of these animals are endangered or extinct, so you won't get any more specimens to create new displays. There were several different areas including North America, Africa, Australia, and more.

I was quite impressed by the glass used in the displays. It was very nice glass and kept well clean. I couldn't see it unless I was looking very carefully or the flash was bouncing off it.

Can you find the squirrel in the scene below? Several of the scenes had quite a few animals hidden (as they would naturally go through the forest) within them.

I also enjoy seeing animals that I may never (or rarely) get to see in the wild.

It was also quite interesting to note that an event was being setup. I've seen this at many museums I've visited (as well as both that employ me). But this would be an especially nice area to eat dinner, surrounded by the animal dioramas.

I knew the albatross was a large bird, but I'd forgotten how huge they actually were.

We also found a fun display on the floor that illustrated the difference between a cheetah and impala running. I've never been to Africa, and I haven't been to a zoo in a while (and the San Diego Wild Animal park never--though I want to visit someday), so I really liked seeing those animals. Though the displays were static, I took a couple videos so that I could pan across the scenes. Sadly as I tried to focus in on a couple of things the camera refused to focus, but I think the scene is still nicely visible.

The contrast in the Australian scenes was also interesting. I'm currently reading The Fatal Shore, a book about Australia's early founding, especially the history of convict settlement of the continent. The initial conditions at Sydney and the first Tasmanian colonies were not easy. There is a variety of terrain in the antipodean continent, from lush areas to dry scrub.