Chicago Trip 2012 - Day 4, Part 2

Apologies in advance Chicago, but this next part was pretty lame.  Which is a shame, because usually I'd be all for it.

After we left the aquarium we walked to the Adler Planetarium.

Shedd Aquarium on the left

Adler Planetarium ahead

Man Enters the Cosmos - functioning sundial sculpture

"Welcome to the Universe.  Notice there is no P in the Universe.  Let's keep it that way"

Our City Pass tickets gained us admission and a free 3D movie.

This looks cool, but it's blocked off

The inside of a space capsule.  I can't imagine what it would have been like in this small, cramped device during re-entry and splashdown

There wasn't much to see (in my opinion), but I did scare the crap out of some kid who got too close to the crater-blasting machine I was operating.  By operating I mean you push a button then wait 2-3 minutes while some fine brown powder at the bottom of an 8ft plexiglass cylinder spins around underneath a metal bar.  The metal bar smoothes out the craters made by previous guests, but it only needs one revolution to complete it's task - not 3 minutes' worth.  At the end of the timer one of several air jets at the top of the chamber makes an explosive FWOOMP! sound and a little crater appears in the powder.

The kid who was all of 11 or 12 came up on the other side of the chamber during the endless swirl cycle. I don't think he knew what was going to happen.
I knew what was going to happen.
I was secretly pleased at the potential outcome.  I'll allow you to think the worse of me for it.

Even with a countdown timer I was still surprised by the loudness and the force of it.  If the kid had been a few years younger he might of pissed himself in addition to jumping out of his skin.

We were tired at this point and just waiting for the 3D movie to start.  When it was time, we were led by staff down several flights of stairs into the bowels of the planetarium to a large lecture hall with a screen at one end and individual straight back chairs arranged in rows.  The movie we were going to see was called Space Junk.  It was about the vast amount of debris orbiting the Earth and the potential hazard it presents.

Most of these kind of museum movies only last for 10-15 minutes.  What we didn't know in advance of seeing this particular film was that the movie was super lame.  We also didn't realize it was 30 minutes long, which like the kid piss generator from earlier was about 3 times too long.  Yes it was in 3D.  Yes it was in a lecture hall.  Now imagine you're back in college and your physics lecture is in 3D - that's how engrossing and entertaining it was.  I fell asleep after about 5 minutes and dozed throughout the movie.