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Clark Planetarium is a fun, free, interactive museum located in The Gateway, Downtown Salt Lake City. It features 3 stories of super neat interactive exhibits to learn about space and stuff. It has been over 20 years since I have been to it, and even longer for Landis so we decided we should come check it out.
Clark Planetarium replaced the old Hansen Planetarium in 2003 when it was moved to The Gateway.
Quick Details:
Length: As much as you wander.
Trail Type: Meander
Difficulty: DR2
Elevation Gain: 3 stories
Restroom: Several.
Dogs? No.
Other Info: Free admittance. But, there is a fee to park in the garage. Plus, the movie experiences cost some as well.
Easy to reach via Trax.
Bring hand sanitizer if you are concerned about it. You touch a LOT and there is no sanitizer on site. Which really just blows my mind after 2000.
To Get Here:
Take i15 to 600 South. Go east to 500 West, turn left. Go north for 5 blocks to 100 South, turn right. Turn right again on 400 West. It will be right on the corner, the parking garage entrance just a little further.
Or take Trax. To the aptly named, Planetarium Station. Literally across the street from it.
Decker Lake (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)). On our way downtown. It is quite gloomy today.
Downtown (PSP).
Fun neon sign in the parking garage. I kind of wish I had wandered closer to it. But meh.
This parking garage definitely takes advantage of the proximity to the Delta Center. There is a concert tonight, which they count as an “event”. Event parking is $15.00 2 hours ahead of start. $20, 1 hour ahead, and $25 a half hour ahead of start. Geeze.
But, it does lead directly into the planetarium.
The Trail:
The entrance from the garage.
The first floor: Earth.
Fun floating globe. It is currently displaying several planets. This appears to be images projecting on a sphere. We saw something similar at the Seattle Museum of Pop Culture.
Saturn.
Earth.
Wolves.
These are on loan from the Bean Life Science Museum.
The pendulum. This is the only major thing I remember that was definitely in the original Hansen Planetarium.
The the little peg markers that show the Earth's movement.
“Foucault Pendulum
This pendulum shows that the earth is rotating.
A pendulum does not change the direction of its swing. This pendulum’s swing appears to change direction because the ground is rotating beneath it. At the poles, Earth rotates beneath a pendulum once in 24 hours. At the equator the ground does not rotate under the pendulum, so a pendulum there will not change the direction of its swing.
In Salt Lake City, the pendulum's swing is at an angle to Earth’s axis so the ground only partly rotates beneath it. At our latitude, the pendulum’s swing will appear to move around a circle in 36.6 hours.”
“Q: How Heavy is the ball?
A: 235 lbs (107 kg of mass).
Q: How long is the cable?
A: 34.8 feet (10.6 meters) long.
Q: What is the time between peg knock downs?
A: It varies between about 2 and 3 minutes.
Q: How does it keep going?
A: Our pendulum continues to swing with the help of an electromagnet that gives a short pull on the cable in the support fixture above.”
The pegs being knocked down make a pretty significant clink. We heard it twice while we explored other exhibits.
Fun! A little tornado simulator.
The sign encourages you to get in it.
Closer.
After I disrupted it.
Seismic jump.
My jump, a little running in place, and Landis’ jump. Fun!
Another large globe, but this one is just Earth, and is not a projection. In fact, it appears to also have raised mountain ranges.
Banded iron. From Ontario, Canada. Some of the oldest rocks on Earth.
Stromatolite, Green River, Vernal, Utah.
The oldest known fossils.
The globe again.
Acasta Gneiss, NW Territories, Canada.
This is a small piece of the oldest surviving rock formation on Earth. Radioactive dating shows that Acasta Gneiss rocks solidified 4 billion years ago.
The globe again, showing the continent we live on.
Meteorite simulator.
“Nantan, Iron Meteorite.
Nantan County, Guangxi, China, Fell: May 1516.
More than ten tons of these meteorites landed in an area approximately 17 miles in length and five miles wide. This 1700 pound meteorite is one of the biggest pieces of the Nantan meteorite in existence, as well as the second largest meteorite on display in the western United States, Made of about 90% iron 7% nickel, this meteorite is very dense!”
More meteorites.
More.
Micro meteorites.
Other meteorites.
“Lunar Meteorite
Tindouf, Algeria, Found in 2017.
This meteorite fell to Earth after being blasted off the moon’s surface by a meteoroid impact. It is made up of rock fragments within compacted regolith from the lunar highlands. Regolith is a fine-grained material that covers the Moon’s surface. A shockwave by an impact can compress and compact regolith into rock. Scientists think the white rock __(cant read)__ this meteorite may be pieces from the original __(cant read)__”
Touch the moon.
It felt like it was under plastic.
Speaking of touching… this entire museum is very touch heavy. I am really surprised that there are not only plenty, but really any hand sanitizer stations. If we come back, I will definitely bring some of our own. I felt ... a little gross for most of the visit. But, at least there are restrooms to wash your hands in.
Gibbon Iron Meteorite. The sign encourages you to lift it to see how heavy it is. It was quite a bit more heavy than expected!
Martian meteorite.
"Stony Meteorite.
Touch me, I’m 4.5 billion years old!"
See, lots of touching. But, I mean, that is a large part of exploring.
A moon model.
"Moon Rock Specimen.
Date: August 1, 1971
Collector: Commander David R. Scott, Apollo 15 Mission
Location: 12 meters north of the rim of Hadley Rille, Moon
Source: Small fragment of 9614 gram “Great Scott” sample
Composition: Medium-grained olivine-normative mare basalt
Age: 3.3 Billion Years."
There are quite a few space themed video games to play as well.
Ope! The pendulum just knocked over another peg.
The volcano simulator didn’t seem to do much.
Heading up to the second floor, or Near Earth.
Landis playing with the Aurora Borealis.
Large plasma ball. I remember the original planetarium had one of these, but I don’t know if it is the same one. I seem to remember it being bigger, but it has been forever so.. what do I know?
Touching it.
More plasma displays to play with.
Woo!
Different types.
Planets in space.
With a radiation blast from the sun. Fun!
Fun machine. Landis thinks this might have been in the original building, but isn't 100% sure. I don't remember.
Above.
Overhead.
And beyond. Wow!
"Newtons Daydream
Climber Spiral
To move the steel balls to the top of the spiral follow Newton's Laws:
Newton’s Laws
1. Inertia: tendency to remain at rest or in motion. (Tip: start slow, 4- or 5-balls per group.)
2. Momentum: Force is relative to mass, direction and speed. (Tip: increase the speed gradually, starting when the steel balls reach the half-way point up the spiral, highest speed when the last balls reach the top.)
3. Reciprocal Force: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Watch ball bearings going down will knock into the ball bearings at rest and knock them down, one-for-one)
I could not get it to work. :(
Onto the 3rd floor: Beyond.
Fun spaceship in the kids play area.
Model of the solar system. I assume it is to scale.
Fun green screen display that lets you give a weather report on different planetary bodies.
I remember this from the last time I was here, back when it first opened in this location. But, I am pretty sure it moved.
I did see something about updates and expansions in 2015/16 and 2023/24.
Fun bowl of mist.
Again.
A mini tornado. This one lets you control it.
It was fun messing with the wind speed and updraft to create different storms.
Atmospheric storms.
The machine again.
Extending beyond.
I had better luck with the interactive bits up here.
Space suit.
The large machine, with another interactive game.
The bowl of mist again.
Watching water freeze.
Smaller Bodies in our Solar System. There are a little bit more than I expected.
Weight on other worlds.
This fun interactive exhibit shows how your mass could affect other traveling masses.
Gravity well. We will come back to this.
I forget what this was, something related to gravity, and it would seem my camera is a picking up as a heavy object.
Human pulsar. I… did not really prepare myself for what this was going to do and I absolutely just launched myself into a freaking tailspin, so much so my camera was flying away from my body. Landis noticed it had clocked me at 50 revolutions per minute. I had to ask him to help me stop cause I couldn’t slow down or make it stop. Apparently I missed the instructions on how to slow myself down. o.O thankfully I had Landis with me.
Bouncy ball machine for the gravity well. They are .25 cents. Again, we will come back to this.
Thermal imagery. There was a hot and cold plate here to mark yourself.
The Io exhibit. This simulates what it might be like on Jupiter's moon Io.
With a view of "Jupiter".
They made some really cool replicate landscapes.
Jupiter again and some rovers.
Which you could control… they were all almost dead, but we got to play with them a little bit.
The Solar System again.
Rocket replica.
The other side of the Solar System.
Some pretty art by photographer: Chrissy Shammas.
I made a quick run down to the gift shop to get some quarters so we could play with the gravity well.
Ahh! This is fun! Way more fun than the one the ones that take coins, which of course they have one of those as well. And if memory serves, had at the old location as well.
Into the well.
I also took a video.
The well again.
The machine again.
Fun star chart table outside one of the theaters. They have 2, a full dome, and an IMAX. From what I can tell, they both usually cost extra.
Down in the Gift Shop there is a fun little interactive rocket. You can play with the fuel and oxygen levels. We we able to launch it about halfway up. I couldn’t figure out the right mixture to get to the top haha. But it was fun.
Then into the Gateway to find some food, cause we were both starving.
Fun lights.
Lights on main street still lit up.
Space boot prints leading back to the planetarium after getting dinner.
The easiest way back to the car was back through the planetarium.
The virtual globe again.
Wolf prints.
Little bit better view of the fun neon sign. I still wish I had wandered closer.
Street view of the current building.
And just for funsies, the old building. It was the original Salt Lake Library, then in 1965 it was remodeled and became the Hansen Planetarium. Then, the planetarium moved to the Gateway in 2003 and became Clark Planetarium. This building is now the O.C. Tanner Jewelry Store, opened in 2009.
Wiseguys. We have had a few experiences here recently supporting a friend.
That was way more fun than I thought it would be! Yay! I love all the interactive exhibits and of course love learning about science. I love that it is free as well. Everybody should get a chance to learn. My only complaint, well, actually I guess I have 2. The main one being the lack of hand sanitizer stations! For how much you touch, there should be several stations on each level, but there were none! Second, the parking garage fee is atrocious! At least when there is an event. Removing a squirrel for each, so 8 today.
As for difficulty, it’s a modern building. DR2.
Dogs are not allowed, so be sure to leave Fido home.
