Marvin Bolt recalls with a sense of satisfaction finding one of the world’s oldest telescopes tucked away in the storage room of a museum in Dresden, Germany. That telescope, built in the 1600s, had never been seen by the public. But as part of the Adler Planetarium’s new exhibit,"Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass,” that telescope and some of the oldest telescopes in the world will be seen for the first time.
More than 100 artifacts will be on display in this exhibit. Visitors will be able to use a 20-foot telescope built in 1675 or look through a telescope that re-creates what Galileo may have seen.
Scattered throughout the exhibition hall will be interactive areas that will especially appeal to younger visitors."They have this‘aha’ moment when they assemble a telescope and they can actually see something,” Bolt says.
The exhibit, which opens May 22, is included in the price of general admission: $10, $8 Chicago residents, $6 kids 3-14, $5 kids 3-14 Chicago residents, free kids 2 and under. Adler Planetarium is located at 1300 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. For more information visit
www.adlerplanetarium.org or call
(312) 922-STAR (7827).
