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

Halloween Tricks & Treats

Posted: October 28, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Programs and Events

4:00 – 6:00 PM, Saturday October 31 Halloween is happening for young ghosts, superheroes, creatures, and more! The Fairbanks Museum is hosting a pass-through Halloween trail for kids to age 6 and their families starting in the new Delia Griffin Playground. This event will be touch-free and outdoors. Protective face… Read More

AmeriCorps Teachers

Posted: October 12, 2020| Categories: Learning, Museum News

The Fairbanks Museum education team welcomes two AmeriCorps Members, who will be leading classes and delivering after school programming for K – 8 students. Both educators add to the Museum’s science skills and bring fresh energy to the team. “We’re happy to welcome Mariama Jones and Molly Hanover to our… Read More

October Astronomy

Posted: October 5, 2020| Categories: Mark Breen, Planetarium News, Skywatch Almanac Astronomy

As the shorter days give way to longer nights, the Milky Way arches from near the Teapot of Sagittarius, hosting Jupiter and Saturn in the south-southwest, through the Summer Triangle high in the southwest, then into the northeast to greet the rising star Capella. Summer’s bright star Arcturus sets in… Read More

October Weather

Posted: October 5, 2020| Categories: Eye on the Sky, Mark Breen, Skywatch Almanac Weather, Weather

Autumn’s stumbling progression is the very essence of October. There are moments still of grace and reprieve, enough that a true optimist might still hope beyond hope that the frost will wait another month. There are days of dark, laden skies, the clouds like a cloak that weighs us down… Read More

Vision for Science Annex

Posted: September 22, 2020| Category: Fairbanks Museum

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| Category: Fairbanks Museum

The Maple Capital Management Outdoor Classroom is a new space that is well-ventilated, roomy, and versatile — an innovative structure that will welcome visitors throughout the year. We’ve always wanted to install an outdoor classroom that changes with the seasons and reacts to natural light. COVID-19 means tearing down traditional… 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

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