Light! Spectra! Action! Teaming up to create excellent astronomical experiences

Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum creates "excellent audience experiences" through a process of prototyping and evaluation. We try to find good projects to replicate or adapt and good partners to reduce the effort, achieve higher quality, or multiply the impact of exhibits, shows, and programs. Adler recently created the exhibit Light! Spectra! Action! by starting with exhibits from the NSF and Exploratorium Science Exhibits Starter Set program. Exhibit text appropriate to astronomy was written, evaluated with test audiences, and revised. Demonstrations and photographs about color, light, and spectra (some based on previous activities) are part of the exhibit. Photographs were enthusiastically provided by David Malin/ Anglo Australian Observatory, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, The Space Telescope Science Institute, Roger Ressmeyer, and Kitt Peak National Observatory. A NASA IDEA Grant was used to enhance the exhibit and enable Kitt Peak to replicate parts of the exhibit for their Visitor Center