The Universe is Cool

Guess what we just saw at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago with our homeschool group.
We saw our closest star, the sun, through a telescope. We learned that it is 19 million miles away and is a third generation star (there being only three generations so far since our universe began). Also, the space shuttle, going 17,000 miles per hour, would get to the sun in 7 months...and then fry up into a crisp. So, it's not in the works at NASA. At this point. As far as we know. Maybe.

The kids loved pushing a button to blast a hollow glass marble downward at 500 MPH into a pan of very fine sand where it made craters with radiant marks. Coo-el. The kids also went down the history of astronomy hallway where they saw robes to don and become medieval scholars. They took turns pretending to read from a treatise written in Latin (or Greek) and spoke to each other about molecules, and gravity and the water cycle. You know, it's not easy to leave your Midwestern suburban reality and become a medieval scholar, but by God, those kids did it. I was convinced.

Back at home, on terra firma, we are having an early dinner and then it's on to soccer practice.

What did you do today? What was interesting, or new, or frustrating, or amazing for you or your family?

Spill.