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The Dome is Done! Planetarium renovation moving ahead right on schedule
February 19, 2016

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, […]

Strong STEM Branches from GEMS: Girls Exploring Math and Science
February 17, 2016

The Houston Museum of Natural Science, along with the Girls Scouts of San Jacinto Council, cordially invite you to attend the Girls Exploring Math and Science event, Feb. 20 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. GEMS is a free event for members and is included with the purchase of a ticket to the museum’s permanent […]

Mark Your Calendars for these events happening at HMNS 2/15-2/21
February 14, 2016

Bust out your planners, calendars, and PDAs (if you are throwback like that), it’s time to mark your calendars for the HMNS events of this week! Last week’s featured #HMNSBlockParty creation: Want to get your engineering handwork featured? Drop by our Block Party interactive play area and try your own hand building a gravity-defying masterpiece. […]

The cutting-edge returns to the Burke Baker Planetarium, where astronauts once trained
February 12, 2016

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 […]

Dispatches from the Gulf: Film examines the effects of Deepwater Horizon oil spill
February 8, 2016

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster may no longer be a buzzword in the media, but the effects of history’s largest oil spill on the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico are still on the minds of marine scientists around the world. Gulf seafood seems to be recovering, but biologists are keeping a close eye to […]

Mark Your Calendars for these events happening at HMNS 2/8-2/14
February 7, 2016

Bust out your planners, calendars, and PDAs (if you are throwback like that), it’s time to mark your calendars for the HMNS events of this week! Last week’s featured #HMNSBlockParty creation is by Jim (age 12 7/8). Want to get your engineering handwork featured? Drop by our Block Party interactive play area and try your […]

Educator How-To: Making the Moon out of Cheese (and Crackers!)
February 6, 2016

After months of renovation, the Burke Baker Planetarium at the Houston Museum of Natural Science will re-open March 11 with the best picture of the universe in the world! The Evans and Sutherland Digistar 5 digital projection system boasts the first True 8K image on the planet, with twice the resolution as an IMAX theater. The powerful digital […]

This Dino Toy’s All Wrong! What’s Up With That!?
February 3, 2016

by “Jurassic” James Washington III With the exception of our feathered friends, dinosaurs are all but gone today. So what are the ways to connect to these long lost creatures? Well as a child I had three options — museums, media and models. Going to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and standing in the […]

Making the Stars: A Brief History of the Burke Baker Planetarium
February 2, 2016

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, […]

Seeing Stars with James Wooten: Five planets at dawn, leap day this February!
February 1, 2016

Jupiter is now a late evening object, rising in the east. It rises by 9 p.m. on Feb. 1, and by Feb. 29 it comes up just before 7 p.m., which is during evening twilight. Jupiter comes to opposition on March 8, which is when Earth aligns with Jupiter and the Sun. That is why […]


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