Thursday, September 19, 2013

Clark Planetarium Fun and Butterflies



My grandsons may look like they are moon explorers, but they are just exploring a photo op at The Clark Planetarium  at the Gateway in Salt Lake City.


Raymond also explored Mars.  This was a great outing for the boys with Grandpa Glen on a rainy Saturday.


We watched movies about the planets and the stars in the Dome Theatre.  At movie's end, Ray and Henry would also tell me what they had seen on Nova.  Smart kids!


Oscar's absolute favorite thing was the ball drop.


Henry was a great cousin who explained all the nuances to him.


Now they are at the bottom of the stairs.  That's right!  It is a two story ball drop.


Down stairs there were many hands-on exhibits.


Including tornado and cloud formation.  The boys also loved exploring the gift shop.  They each came away with a favorite small airplane or helicopter.  Thanks Grandpa!


Our finale was the IMAX movie "Flight of the Butterflies."  The boys looked so cute with their 3-D glasses on but the best part was watching them trying to catch butterflies.  Luckily no one was sitting in the row in front of us.


The movie interweaves two stories. One is that of Fred Urquhart who studied butterflies, perfected tags to track their movement, and finally found the location of where the monarchs go in winter.  I love this quote of his that I found.

“I gazed in amazement at the sight. Butterflies – millions upon millions of monarch butterflies!” wrote Urquhart in a 1976 National Geographic story. “Breathless from the altitude, my legs trembling from the climb, I muttered aloud, “Unbelievable! What a glorious, incredible sight!”

And it was an incredible sight, the IMAX movie image of all those monarch butterflies which still migrate to the Mexico High Sierras.  This was the second story told, the yearly 3000 miles migration of the monarchs which actually takes the time of three generations of butterflies.  If you get a chance, go see this great movie experience.

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