Clark Planetarium- Salt Lake City

Tyler's sixth grade classes at his school took a field trip to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City a couple weeks ago. I was lucky enough to get the day off from watching children- thanks Stacey and Blanca! Dallin went to a neighbor's house and had a blast! The morning started at 8:30 when we boarded the new Front Runner commuter train that runs from Davis county to Salt Lake City. From there we took the Trax to the Planetarium at the Gateway Mall. Trax is like a mix of a cable car and bus. The kids loved riding the Front Runner especially since they didn't have to sit in their seats and could walk around. There were giggly sixth grade girls going from group to group to socialize. I felt bad for the poor commuters that were bombarded by over 75 sixth graders! No, really the kids were entertaining! Since I was on the field trip with Tyler, they assigned me 4 boys to supervise. They were all good kids and didn't make trouble.

Tyler on his first ride on the Front Runner!

As you enter the Planetarium, there is this globe suspended by three cables. If you are in a group like we were, they have a presentation that shines four different projector images onto the globe to give it a full picture of whatever planet they are presenting. In our group, they started with the sun and worked their way out to pluto. When the image of earth came up on the globe, I was surprised to have a spiritual moment as I looked at the beautiful blues and greens. I was overwhelmed with gratitude to God for this gift of a beautiful, perfect planet for life in the middle of the Milky Way. Who would have thought that I would have a spiritual moment on a sixth grade field trip! Just a couple of minutes later, one of the teachers sat down by me and mentioned just about the same thing that I had experienced! Someone was really inspired to put the program together!

As you tour the museum, there are many different space things to look at. Here is a suit from one of the Apollo missions.

This is an actual moon rock from another of the Apollo missions. It was really hard to get a decent picture of this with the glare of the angled glass and my flash.

I really liked this form of the moon and tried to get an artistic picture of it. I think it turned out okay. Could be better if I had a tripod and worked with the lights more.

I just liked the colors in this photo and the interesting signs that make it feel it really is Central Station.

This young man is one of Tyler's friends from Church. He was also in my group. I looks like he is on the planet Mars! The school my son attends has a manditory uniform policy. White shirts with collars and blue dress pants are required for field trips. While we were there, we also saw a presentation in the dome theater. It was presented by a man with a microphone so that you could ask questions if you had them and he could stop to answer them. I was actually tired by the time this presentation was done because of all of the information I took in. Then we went to the Imax theater located in the museum and watched a movie that was narrated by Tom Cruise. It was very informative and was in 3-D. The kids really liked it- but it is geared towards school aged kids and adults.

By the time we got back to the station to leave Salt Lake City, I had a small headache and was tired. We all had a great time and learned quite a bit. I would recommend this museum to older kids who are interested in the planets and the solar system. Toddlers wouldn't find this museum too exciting since it is geared towards children that can read.