I thought Neil deGrasse Tyson might be at the American Museum of Natural
History. Apparently he was on the
subway, at least according to this photo.
We rode the subway, too. What an
amazing coincidence! Maybe at some point
in our space-time continuums we were even on the same train!
I doubt I would have recognized him if I had seen him. We don’t get TV, so I haven’t seen his
series.
On the day we went seeking NdGT we walked from our hotel on
47th Street, through the southwest corner of Central Park, to the
museum on 77th Street. I
cannot say that I recommend walking thirty blocks just before you intend to walk
through a giant museum.
In the past, when I went to a museum, I was always prevented
from learning anything because the kids always wanted to just run through and
push all buttons - no reading allowed.
This time, I was so exhausted that I just sat there watching a movie,
and I learned something! I learned that
there are seismologists who are constructing an array of seismic instruments
across the US, in the hopes of measuring ‘background’ movements in the earth’s
crust. The movie showed scientists putting their seismic instruments in a cement
hole in the middle of a cornfield near Syracuse, NY. To see if their instruments were working,
they stomped on the hole, a method which seemed completely unscientific to
me. The data from this effort are all
sent to the Transportable Array Coordinating Office. TACO.
Those scientists with their names of things!
Now I am going to do a photo dump of a few things we saw at the museum. Once again I have to delay further tales of New York, because we have to leave town for a few days to move Oldest Daughter back to college and to attend to an elderly relative.
 |
| Teddy Roosevelt statue outside the museum. I have to tell you that the horse in this statue is anatomically correct. |
 |
| My husband named this dinosaur Binkie. |
 |
 |
| By the time we got to this display about the Big Bang, we felt like we had been walking for a billion light-years. |
 |
| I think they need a more imaginative name for "Globular Clusters." Like tacos, maybe. |
I think Ernest and I might have walked that Big Bang spiral the wrong way, like fish against the stream.
ReplyDeleteOh! I have never been to NY and this makes me REALLY want to go even more than I already did.
ReplyDeleteDid you eat cronuts? :-)
Museums tend to make me tired. It's so nice if you can do them in smaller doses, but that's often impossible.
ReplyDeleteI would have totally recognized NdGT on the subway! How cool that would be :-)
TACO. That provided a wonderful Saturday morning laugh-out-loud.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to hang that neon x-ray print lithograph fish thingie (I don't know what it is, okay?) on my wall, which is curious, as I've never shown any particular affinity for fish before. It's just so purdy.
And listen, I'm a champion walker, but walking in NYC is exhausting. I remember the modern art section of the Met was one of my favorites, not because of what was hanging on the walls, but because they had the most comfortable benches.
Fantastic sounding kind of trip. I adore museums. I should go more often to admire collections of things and learn stuff.
ReplyDeleteMy memory of visiting NYC as a 15yo is the endless walking and exhaustion. My memories of visiting NYC as an adult include endless walking and exhaustion but also some really cool sights. Sadly, they do not include NdGT, whom I would recognize by sight and would swoon at his voice.
ReplyDeleteDid you go to the Museum of Natural History? I think I recognize that dinosaur. I remember going there on a class trip as a kid and being awestruck.
ReplyDelete