Adler Planetarium

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Adler Planetarium

The Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum in Chicago, Illinois was the first planetarium built in the Western Hemisphere and is the oldest in existence today. The Adler was founded and built in 1930 by the philanthropist Max Adler, with the assistance of the first director of the planetarium, Philip Fox. It is located amongst many other world famous museums on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago's Museum Campus.

The Adler is home to more than 35,000 square feet of exhibits including scale models of the Solar System, antique astronomical instruments, and interactive displays. The Adler's historical collections of astronomical instruments and rare books are considered among the finest in the world.

The Adler is the only museum in the world with two full-size planetarium theaters. Since the museum's opening in 1930, visitors view representations of the night sky in the historic Sky Theater planetarium, the dome of which is visible from the exterior of the building. The Zeiss Planetarium projector is capable of accurately reproducing the movement of every aspect of the night sky. In 1999, the Adler expanded its exhibition space, including the addition of the StarRider Theater, a completely digital fulldome video environment powered by Digistar 3 simulator technology. In addition to its educational shows, the StarRider Theater hosts showings of SonicVision, a digitally animated planetarium music show.