Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium's Blog | Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium

Wildflower Wander

Posted: May 18, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Learning, What's Happening

We’re watching for new blooms every day. Early spring flowers bask in our New England sunshine and brighten fields, forests, and wetlands with splashes of color. We’ve been recording first bloom dates at the Fairbanks Museum since 1904, and we’re not about to stop now — we’re simply moving our… Read More

Our Virtual Doors Are Open!

Posted: March 30, 2020| Category: Fairbanks Museum

You can help build a new dimension in science learning. The Fairbanks Museum just received a $20,000 challenge — every gift will be doubled during this appeal. Make your gift online today. We need your help to make the transition to a vital, virtual science education resource. Your gift… Read More

Vision for Science Annex

Posted: September 22, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, What's Happening

by Andrew McGregor, Caledonian-Record (9/22/2020) In a bold vision for its future, the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium has plans to build the first major expansion on the historic structure in 125 years. But not even the team with the only public planetarium in Vermont knows just yet if the… Read More

Learning Re-framed

Posted: September 15, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, What's Happening

You can be part of creating a classroom that delivers inspiration and science in the heart of St. Johnsbury. With your help, we’re installing an outdoor classroom that will be well-ventilated, roomy, and versatile — an innovative space that will welcome visitors throughout the year. We need your help to… Read More

Bye-Bye Butterflies!

Posted: September 8, 2020| Category: Fairbanks Museum

We bid farewell and safe journey to our friends, the native butterflies that have been living in our Shippee Family Eyecare Butterfly House since late June. This exhibit, like the butterflies themselves, changes with the weather. We stop ordering pupae the first week in September. Colder weather and shorter days… Read More

September Weather

Posted: September 3, 2020| Categories: Eye on the Sky, Fairbanks Museum, Skywatch Almanac Weather

When the calendar flips to September, we expect change, though we are not always ready to accept it. The key to all of the changes in September is the loss of daylight hours, amounting to 90 minutes or so. The longer nights and shorter days set the stage for cooler… Read More

Butterflies

Posted: August 7, 2020| Category: Fairbanks Museum

Take a stroll through our Shippee Family Eye Care Butterfly House and surround yourself with moving colors. We’ve nurtured native species from eggs through pupae and cocoon until magnificent butterflies emerge. Monarchs, Admirals, and Swallowtails have the showiest patterns. Their colors are especially striking as they nestle on cone-flowers, bee… Read More

September Astronomy

Posted: August 3, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Mark Breen, Planetarium News, Skywatch Almanac Astronomy, What's Happening

Summer’s constellations Scorpio and Sagittarius are thinking about leaving as they progress into the southwest through the month, joined by the spectacular planetary duo of Jupiter and Saturn in the south as twilight fades. Extending up from the Teapot in Sagittarius, the broad, faint path of the Milky Way arches… Read More

August Weather

Posted: August 3, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Mark Breen, Skywatch Almanac Weather, Weather

Although summer continues to reign in August, one does not have to look hard to find signs of impending change. Most Augusts start every bit as hot as July, most notably that of 1909, when the temperature soared to 100 on the 8th. In fact the entire continent has warmed… Read More

Jewel Heist

Posted: July 8, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Programs and Events, What's Happening

Match wits with a master jewelry thief to solve a mystery in the museum! Transform your visit to our galleries with this new immersive experience that reveals new dimensions of our eclectic exhibits. The headline from August 6, 1913: Museum Gems are Stolen “A large collection of gems, including specimens… Read More

July Weather

Posted: July 1, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Mark Breen, Skywatch Almanac Weather, Weather

Summer finds itself more at home this month than in any other. The temperatures reach their annual maximum during the last week of this month, even though the Sun reached its greatest strength on the first day of summer. It takes the Earth a while to heat up, which in… Read More

July Astronomy

Posted: July 1, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Mark Breen, Planetarium News, Skywatch Almanac Astronomy

The southern skies are busy this month, with the red star Antares marking the “heart” of the Scorpion, its claws stretching to the west, and its tail along the horizon. To its left, crossing the “river of light” known as the Milky Way, is the “teapot” in Sagittarius, while farther… Read More

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