The Smithsonian is a name recognized all over the world. Internationally, if people know one Museum in the US, it’s most likely the Smithsonian. But through Smithsonian Affiliations, museums all over the country can partner in efforts to share science, art, and history with everyone. The Miami Science Museum is a proud Affiliate member, and recently has taken advantage of several unique opportunities made available by the Smithsonian.

One of these opportunities was sponsored by Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day Live, and it allowed our Museum to open its doors for free and allow even more of our community to come here and get up close to science activities and exhibits, planetarium shows, and even live animals like starfish and turtles. We had a special visitor that day, 3 month old Colton, who came to the Museum for the first time with his family – just like his mom did when she was a child. Colton’s mom wrote a gracious email to the Museum telling us all about Colton’s adventure, and how much he enjoyed his first Museum visit. Click here to see more of Colton’s day and read his family’s letter to the Museum.

Colton and his mom Tracy

For the Smithsonian’s National Youth Summit, the Museum was able to invite local youth to participate in a national conversation about environmental stewardship. Students previewed clips from Ken Burns’ documentary “The Dust Bowl,” which shows the very real cause-and-effect relationship that humans can have with nature, and focuses on the 1930s, when the wheat farming boom caused a large-scale, decade-long drought. Miami students participated in a nationwide videoconference with students from around the country, and then in a “town hall” meeting with local experts. Because of this event, these students now know more about being responsible for their environment. Click here to find out more about this event.

Students and local experts at our “town hall” meeting

In yet another amazing opportunity, the Museum applied for and received a grant from Smithsonian Affiliations to involve students in astronomy and astrophotography through the Youth Capture the Colorful Cosmos program. Students were able to remotely operate NASA MicroObservatory telescopes, request their own images, and then process their images using real astronomy imaging software. Students were given complete creative freedom, and the result was a new exhibition at the Museum showcasing their work, which illustrates the spectacular detail and amazing structures in our Universe. At the exhibition’s opening weekend, students were present to show their work to visitors, and lead hands-on activities related to color, light, and telescopes. Click here to see more of the students’ images of our colorful cosmos.

Raymond and Giselle at their exhibition

What’s next? We can’t wait to see!

Every year, the Museum celebrates our Universe, and everyone with a passion for observing, investigating, and learning about it. On a large scale, it’s officially National Astronomy Day. Here at the Museum, we called our celebration AstroJam: A Cosmic Quest. On Friday under a nearly full Moon, and on Saturday under sunny skies, visitors were treated to space-related film screenings, hands-on activities, planetarium shows, a live theater show featuring Galileo, and the chance to look through the Museum’s rooftop observatory on Friday night, and through solar telescopes on Saturday provided by the Astronomy Club from Florida International University. Also on hand at the event was the Southern Cross Astronomical Society, who provided materials for guests and shared news of their weekly observing nights that are open to the public. Visitors received materials from Astronomy Magazine, and were treated to an exhibition of astrophotography sponsored by the Smithsonian Affiliations’ Youth Capture the Colorful Cosmos project, and created by high school students from the Museum’s Upward Bound program. (Click here to see more of the students’ exhibition.) During the event, young visitors went on a “Cosmic Quest” throughout the Museum – every time they completed an activity, they received a sticker on their “quest port card.” Activities included a laser maze, building your own Mars Rover, making ultraviolet jewelry, and lots more. And of course, being so close to Halloween, what event would be complete without a costume contest? A few lucky visitors (like Mario & Luigi, Darth Vader, and Athena) walked away with prizes like Celestron telescopes, a Straddle game (kind of like a space version of Twister), and glow in the dark stars for their rooms. The whole event was a cosmic hit! Check out a slideshow of photos below.

We’ve all seen the amazing images from the Hubble Space Telescope. The details in the colors and swirling patterns are not just beautiful – they also tell a story about what is happening there. Is that cloud of gas and dust a nursery for newborn stars? Are these massive bubbles of gas that have exploded from a supernova? And perhaps most importantly, who creates these images, and how?

As a member of Smithsonian Affiliations, the Miami Science Museum was recently able to answer that last question … in our case, it’s students! As a recipient of a grant from the Smithsonian’s Youth Capture the Colorful Cosmos program, the Museum was able to give students participating in our Upward Bound program the opportunity to remotely operate NASA’s MicroObservatory, a system of robotic telescopes in Arizona. Students chose the objects they wanted to observe, including the exposure time and the filter through which the telescope would take the image. The next day, they received emails from the telescope with their images. Most of the time, the images appeared dark, as if there wasn’t much there. But students learned how to use professional-grade software to adjust brightness scales, reduce the background “noise” of the image, and add color schemes. All of a sudden those seemingly dark images became spectacular images of our colorful cosmos!

MicroObservatory telescopes

Lagoon Nebula (raw image)

The students were not done after they created their works of astrophotography art. Their work has now been combined into a new exhibition at the Museum! Students were also present for the exhibit’s opening weekend (which coincided with AstroJam, the Museum’s annual astronomy event) where they led activities on color, filters, and light, to pass on to Museum visitors their knowledge of telescopes and our Cosmos.

Lagoon Nebula (created by Claudia)

The Sun (created by Raymond)

The Pinwheel Galaxy (created by Giselle)

NGC 891 (created by Odelkis)

Orion Nebula (created by Samwood)

The Dumbbell Nebula (created by Randy)

Youth Capture the Colorful Cosmos Exhibit

Jerry, with his creations

Ivory, with future scientists building a laser maze