Did you know that Star-nosed moles can smell underwater? Learn more in this video with Aro, Collections Technician of Natural History.
Did you know this camera’s fascinating history?
What year would you guess the first colour photograph to be printed the day after it was taken came out in a North American newspaper? Did you know that it was printed in Manitoba’s own Winnipeg Free Press?
The Manitoba Museum has 103 cameras in its collection, but one donated this year has a fascinating history! Learn more about this special discovery in this video with Curator of History, Dr. Roland Sawatzky.
Keep learning with Dr. Sawatzky’s blog post The Devin Tri-Color Camera here.
Did you know that we have a Barbie Collection?
Hi Barbie!
Did you know that museums collect contemporary objects in anticipation of future research, education, and exhibits well after we’ve all retired? This includes items like toys! Learn a bit about the history of Barbie with Rylee in this video in the Human History Collection.
Did you have any of these Barbies or their accessories?
Dome@Home Returns!
The Manitoba Museum Planetarium’s popular online program, Dome@Home, returns this month. Hosted by Planetarium astronomer Scott Young, the show brings the wonders of the universe to anyone with an internet connection.
The show has changed formats, becoming a 1-hour program run on the last Thursday of each month. The show’s content will focus on all of the celestial sights and special events that viewers can see over the next month.
“We started Dome@Home during the pandemic, when the Planetarium was closed,” says Young. “Once the Planetarium reopened, we weren’t able to produce a weekly online show as well as operate all of our planetarium shows and programs, so something had to give.”
The first show of the new format will be broadcast live at 7 pm CDT on Thursday, August 31 on the Manitoba Museum’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. The kick-off show features a tour of the end-of-summer sky, close-ups on the visible planets, and a look ahead to a possible bright comet in September.
The next episode, set to air September 28, will focus on the upcoming partial eclipse of the Sun visible from Winnipeg on October 14 of this year. Future episodes will look at other celestial sights, and also see the return of favorite Dome@Home segments like “Cool Space Stuff” and guest presentations by local astronomers and observers.
Dome@Home is a of FREE virtual programming inviting Manitobans to explore the universe with Planetarium Astronomer Scott Young. Get to know the stars with us on the last Thursday of every month at 7 pm Central!
As pioneering Canadian astronomer Helen Sawyer Hogg always said, “The stars belong to everyone.”
The Eckhardt-Gramatté Collection and the material culture of death
CW// Death, thoughts of suicide.
When Sonia Eckhardt-Gramatté’s beloved husband Walter passed away, she kept many mementos of him. In this video, Collections Technician Cortney talks a bit about the Eckhardt-Gramatté Collection and the material culture of death.
Did you know that water was once transported within Winnipeg in wooden pipes?
Did you know that water was once transported within Winnipeg in wooden pipes?
Join Learning and Engagement Producer Corinne in the Winnipeg Gallery to learn what else these wooden pipes brought to Winnipeggers in the late 1800s.
Exploring the Universe
By Scott Young, Planetarium Astronomer
Have you ever seen the stars? Like, really SEEN them, from a dark place, far away from the lights of the city. If you have, you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you are missing one of the great beauties of the natural world.
The night sky is magical. Take even the most jaded person and put them under the stars, and it gives them a sense of awe and wonder. We can’t help it – we are hard-wired to be amazed by the stars.
I’m sure there is some explanation for why that is. Probably, because our ancient ancestors who *didn’t* like the stars also didn’t figure out the cycles of the heavens and the progression of the seasons, and so didn’t make it through a winter that they couldn’t predict. The sky has given us clock, calendar, and a certainty about our understanding of the universe around us, and civilization was built upon that knowledge. The sky was one of humanity’s greatest discoveries, right up there with fire, the wheel, and chocolate.
Today, with satellite weather and pocket-sized supercomputers, we don’t need the sky for such basic purposes. (It still works, by the way, in case the zombie apocalypse or robot uprising sets us back to the dark ages.) We have telescopes in space and are flying drones on other planets. Yet more than ever, people are looking to the sky with interest. Even with all the things we know about the universe, there’s still a sense of mystery and wonder that makes us want to experience it ourselves.
And you can. You don’t need a telescope to start exploring the sky tonight. All you need is a clear sky, and a place even a little sheltered from nearby lights. Even from downtown Winnipeg you can see the Moon, the brighter planets, and many of the familiar star patterns like the Big Dipper or Summer Triangle. An ordinary pair of binoculars can give you a closer view and expand the number of objects you can track down. Books, apps, and online videos can teach you the sky one piece at a time, and each discovery you make will be yours. It doesn’t matter that Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter four centuries ago – when you discover them for the first time in a pair of binoculars, you will feel the same thrill of excitement he did, and your personal universe will have gotten a little bit larger.
Exploring the sky has another important benefit: it’s fun and relaxing, and it gives you a broader sense of perspective. When contemplating the three hundred billion suns that make up our own Milky Way or if any of their trillions of worlds are inhabited, our smaller earthly concerns fade into the background. The pale blue dot we live on is just a speck in the vast universe, and the things that divide us are outnumbered by the things that unite us. We all live under the same sky, and the stars belong to everyone. Get to know our sky, and you get to know yourself and your place in the grand scheme of things.
Explore Manitoba’s Skies!
Visit the Planetarium this summer to venture to far-off galaxies, witness spectacular solar systems, and get to know the stars in our very own skies.
Buy your tickets today to reserve your seat under the stars!
Scott Young
Planetarium Astronomer
Scott is the Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum, developing astronomy and science programs. He has been an informal science educator for thirty years, working in the planetarium and science centre field both at The Manitoba Museum and also at the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Scott is an active amateur astronomer and a past-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
Did You Know that Churchill, Manitoba was once a tropical sea?
As seen in our Ancient Seas exhibit, 450 million years ago Churchill, Manitoba looked a little different! Learn about the ancient tropical sea in this video with Curator of Geology and Paleontology, Dr. Graham Young.
Do you know how roller coasters work?
Learn about the physics behind roller coasters while having fun with water in this experiment with Science Communicator Adriana! Try it yourself at home. Can you keep the water from spilling?
Did you know about the childhood of Sonia Eckhardt-Gramatté?
Learn about the fascinating childhood of musician and composer Sonia Eckhardt-Gramatté in this video with Collections Technician of Human History, Cortney.