The Houston Museum of Natural Science staff is full of people who spent their wonder years walking its halls during field trips and family visits. One of those is membership manager Jacquelyn DiStefano. “I came here the first time in fourth grade,” she says. “This was when the Grand Hall looked much different. The dinosaurs […]
In the past, UFO programs have been more science fiction and less hard science. Now with better telescopes, brighter computers, and advances in theoretical physics, we can tackle the most profound questions in astronomy and perhaps in all of human history: Are UFOs real? and Are we really alone? Some theories we debunk. Aliens with […]
Thanksgiving is a very special time of the year. Some of us eagerly anticipate reuniting with our loved ones, sharing stories of the past with the old, anticipating the future (especially the coming Christmas holiday) with the young. Others of us may feel a little overwhelmed at the logistics of these gatherings and the minor […]
Mark Your Calendars for these events happening at HMNS August 15 – August 21 NEW EXHIBIT OPENING! Gems of the Sea: The Guido T. Poppe Collection Opens August 19, 2016 World class. One of a kind. Never before seen. Made by mollusks. The Philippines consists of over 7,500 islands in Southeast Asia, totaling a land […]
Written by Ashley Zalta, HMNS Special Events Manager The Burke Baker Planetarium at The Houston Museum of Natural Science has been recently renovated, and is now the premiere planetarium in the galaxy. It’s the first and only True8K™ planetarium, offering an unprecedented 50,000,000 pixels of beautiful brightness, resolution and brilliance. We wanted to show off […]
Jupiter is now high in the east-southeast at dusk. It outshines all stars we ever see at night, so you can’t miss it. Mercury is visible just after sunset this month. Face west at twilight, and look low in the sky over the point where the sun sets. Mercury isn’t as brilliant as Venus or […]
The Burke Baker Planetarium and Friedkin Theater renovation project reached a milestone this week, and we at the museum are brimming with anticipation! Okay. That’s an understatement. When we first heard the news, we all ran around screaming, “The dome is finished! The dome is finished!” That’s what really happened. The dome is indeed complete, […]
Think back to the technology of the late 1980s: corded phones, boom boxes, cathode color TVs. In this era, it’s tough to imagine how anyone achieved the remarkable feat of traveling to space and orbiting the Earth without WiFi or contemporary computers. But Americans did it, and we made history! Now imagine what it must […]
In July of 1964, the Houston Museum of Natural Science opened its new museum in Hermann Park with modest exhibit space and the Burke Baker Planetarium. A state-of-the-art Spitz Space Transit Planetarium dominated the theater’s center with its flat floor and a few slide projectors. Two star balls connected by cages, swinging in a yoke, […]
by Kaylee Gund What’s in a number? They’re symbols we use to quantify the world around us, the basis for astrophysics and time measurement, and among the first things we learn in language. 5: right angle meets curve. 1: straight as a ruler. Using some mental glue, stick these together and the result is 51, […]
