Did you know that the SC State Museum stays open late on Tuesdays???? Well they do which makes them awesome in my book because for us 9 to 5 people (are you hearing Dolly Parton yet) it's perfect when wanting to plan an outing during the week. & did I mention the tickets are discounted. Okay let me give you some GOOD NEWS! The SC State Museum is open on Tuesdays (what they call their 'Second Shift Twosdays) until 10pm (the galleries are open until 8pm and the observatory is open until 10pm). General admission is 2 for $10 (regularly $8.95 per person). See, I told you it was good news! We purchased our general admission tickets and 2 tickets for the Black Holes showing for a grand total of $20 (pretty awesome/inexpensive date night).
Since the Black Holes show started at 7pm, we went to see the Reconstruction exhibit first. This exhibit is informative and packed full of great exhibits. Reconstruction is know as the time period after the Civil War (1865) until 1876/1877 (I've seen both dates so...). Reconstruction was the attempt to bring the country back together after the Civil War. While there were some good things that came from Reconstruction, like with everything else there were bad things and of course corruption. Some of the good was the amendments to the constitution: the 13th amendment: abolishing slavery; the 14th amendment: citizenship to all regardless of race/gender, and the 15th amendment: the right to vote to all males regardless of race (Ladies, we don't get the right to vote until 1920). Also, education, through public schools, was made available for all children regardless of race, gender and wealth status (schooling for the most part (in SC) was for elite white families).
After going through the Reconstruction exhibit, we walked around the museum for a little bit before making our way to the Planetarium and guess what I found???? Mourning items!!!!!
After admiring the mourning items, we headed downstairs to the Planetarium to get ready for the show.
I knew very little about black holes going into the showing but came out with this vast knowledge (okay so maybe not vast but I know a lot more about black holes and it's fascinating!). Did you know that black holes are formed from old stars? Once a star begins producing iron that's basically a sign that the end is near (well that sounded terrifying!) at which time they blow up (collapse, fall apart...whatever wording you prefer). Depending on there size (if they are massive like the Sun (also a star)) a black hole could potentially form. Black holes have an extremely strong gravitational pull that once anything (like light) gets close, it will more than likely be pulled into the gravitational pull and that's where, if it's light, we get those amazing outer space photos. Time is also slower with the black hole. A test was done which showed that keeping the same time, once the object entered the black hole it's time count slowed while the time count outside of the hole continued to go at normal speed. Also, the temperature drops the closer an object gets to the black hole.
There is a lot more information that is covered during this show, but you shouldn't hear it from me you should go see for yourself...you won't be disappointed. The graphics are amazing! Watching this show was a great interesting/entertaining way to learn science. If you decide to go...what am I'm saying of course you're going...this blog post hasn't even finished and you're already writing next Tuesday's date on your calendar, the showing for Black Holes is 7pm (this is show time for Second Shift Twosdays).
Happy Travels,
Amber
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