The museum looks terrific. Wondered whatever happened to the heliostat. Couldn't understand why it did't go the Clark. Thanks for letting everyon know. Now I know what I'm going to do on a straight A day. My nieces and nephews and now their children, if they get straight As, we spend a day together. They are the center of attention. It used to be the planetarium,now there are options. And this is brand new and different. I have a 14 year old about to claim it- for the 3rd time. They are at my mercy lol. Thanks for the video. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Fisher" <iotacass1@hotmail.com> To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com, "Bill Cowles" <bjcowles@xmission.com> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 8:01:19 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Natural History Museum I was fortunate enough to be one of the very first (from the public) to spend the day at the new Natural History Museum of Utah today. I took my 14 year old granddaughter and her friend. They were great! I simply could go on forever about what a great museum this is and is going to be. Everything was open, all the labs and storage areas that will not be open most days. Everything worked as it should on the first day except the Heliostat and solar telescope that was formerly at the Hansen Planetarium. The total overcast prevented it from doing it's thing. This brought about the funniest part of the day. So many things in the museum are "interactive" and at the Heliostat people were waving their hands over the table and pushing buttons and trying to get a display. I informed them that it needed sunlight to work. (can you imagine that) After a few laughs we moved on to talking about the Venus Transit in 2012 and I found a fairly large audience that was very receptive to hearing about the plans that SLAS is working on. I think we will have a crowd from the msueum that will be very interested in Astronomy either solar or night time. Here is a teaser, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXrug5MjuEw A small astronomy area but it is there! Check out the new museum, I think you will be glad you did.Steve _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php