The new is already kind of old at the Adler

and I've seen it twice just to make sure

01/05/2012 6:39 PM

By Bonnie McGrath

No Comments - Add Your Comment


I decided to see the new overhead production at the Adler Planetarium for a second time yesterday; I wasn't so impressed the first time a few months ago. But then, it was opening day, crowded, busy and something really new. Yesterday, the crowd was thin, and there was no big hoopla and I could concentrate a little better.


It's all part of a new configuration in part of the original building called Deep Space Adventure. The new exhibit required the relocation of the gift shop, and a completely new overhead theater. The new theater footprint at the wonderful Adler once housed the decades-old Zeiss projector that sent likenesses of space to an impressive and very round ceiling. And you really felt like you were looking at outer space and the night sky and such. But the historic projector was taken out about a year and a half ago, replaced by a new exhibit space, complete with a new theater.

The new theater is sort of like a mini-Omnimax; the black chairs more-stick like, a little less comfy and not so laid back as the others. The thing I really object to at our premier South Loop (not to mention worldwide) fabulous Adler, where you can explore and relax and even eat in a most magnificent, beautiful and learned atmosphere is the nature of the new movie under the new dome, which is called "The Searcher."

One of the few places in the universe to really learn about science in all its glory is the Adler Planetarium. So why are they utilizing the science fiction genre to tell the latest story? Are they thinking that will attract more visitors? Do they really need a gimmick to pack them in? I mean they have actual moon rocks, actual Gemini Spacecraft and some of the best telescopes under the sun--not to mention under the planets, stars, moon and asteroids.

While it's true that the factual basis for the film is based on science--as good science fiction is apt to do--the scientific facts are rather complicated ones that need an explanation. Kids, who might like the colors and the swaying and swirling lights and colors on the overhead digital get-up of actual space travel, won't get the science at all. But they might like an "alien" who is trying to find his home in the universe--which is the the science fiction part. I vote for giving them a real lesson--not entertaining them with stories that make no sense in reality.

As much as I have waxed poetic about our neighborhood's wonderful opportunity to learn about space at the Adler (not to mention seeing it from their observatory), I am profoundly disappointed in the Planetarium's decision to replace science with science fiction in the new theater; not exactly an homage to the days of the Zeiss, which laid out the facts, ma'am, just the facts.


No Comments - Add Your Comment