Clark Planetarium facts for kids
The Clark Planetarium is an exciting planetarium and science museum located in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. It's a fantastic place to explore space and learn about science! The Clark Planetarium first opened its doors in April 2003. It replaced the older Hansen Planetarium thanks to help from the Clark Foundation and Salt Lake County.
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Hansen Dome Theater
The Hansen Dome Theater is a huge, round screen that's about 55 feet (16.8 meters) wide. It's made of special aluminum and has 190 seats for visitors. This theater uses an amazing Digistar system. Two super-clear projectors work together to show one big video across the entire dome. It looks like a 3D movie, but you don't need special glasses! The picture is even clearer than regular high-definition video.
The system can show images with a resolution of 4096 X 4096 pixels. This means the pictures are incredibly detailed. It also plays videos at 60 frames per second, making movements look very smooth. For sound, there's a powerful 13,000-watt system. It has 21 speakers hidden behind the screen, giving you a full surround sound experience. The shows here cover many different topics about space.
Orbital ATK IMAX Theater
The Clark Planetarium also has an IMAX theater. This big screen theater is called the Northrop Grumman IMAX Theatre. It mostly shows science and nature films. You can watch both 3D and 2D movies here. In 2010, the theater got a big upgrade. It received new digital projectors, a brand new screen, comfy new seats, and an improved sound system.
Production
The Clark Planetarium has its own special team that creates digital dome movies. They use a powerful computer system to make these amazing shows.
Exhibits
The Clark Planetarium offers 10,000 square feet (929 square meters) of free exhibits. One popular exhibit is "Science on a Sphere." This is a computer-animated globe that shows Earth's weather and other planetary data. Another unique display is "Newton's Daydream." This is a huge moving sculpture created by artist George Rhoads.
You can also see a Foucault pendulum, which shows how the Earth rotates. There's a large Earth Globe and displays of real Meteorites. You can also learn about different types of telescopes. The planetarium also shows live video updates from the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA TV.
One of the coolest things to see is a real Moon rock. This rock was brought back from the Moon by the Apollo 15 mission. It's on permanent loan from NASA. The exhibit also includes videos of the astronauts collecting this very rock. New exhibits are often added. These include a display about rockets, a solar energy exhibit, and a fun exhibit called "Weight on Other Worlds."
Education and Public Outreach
The planetarium's education team helps over 75,000 school children each year. They do this through field trips to the planetarium. They also have traveling science programs that visit schools across Utah. These outreach programs include exciting "auditorium programs." These shows feature some of the best interactive science demonstrations.
They also offer in-depth visits to 6th-grade classes. These visits focus on topics from their astronomy lessons. "Star parties" are another fun way to learn. These events let people look directly at many celestial objects through telescopes. Topics covered include electricity, Newton's laws of motion, phases of the Moon, seasons, distance and scale, planets, the Solar System, and many other interesting science subjects.
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