Evansville Museum aims to educate ahead of eclipse
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - The Evansville Museum is one of the organizations in the Tri-State that’s using the upcoming eclipse as a reason to plan community events.
As we get closer to April’s eclipse, you might be wondering what exactly is going to happen. Luckily for us, we do have the Evansville Museum.
On Thursday, the museum’s director of science experiences Dr. Carlisle Wishard met with our crew in their immersive theater and planetarium to learn a little bit more.
The Evansville Museum of Arts, History, & Science works to educate and entertain the tri-state. The upcoming eclipse gives them a unique chance to do that.
“The eclipse is a wonderful opportunity for that,” said director of science experiences, Dr. Carlisle Wishard. “That’s something that’s happening here that’s local, that people can get engaged with and learn about, and then witness it from their own backyard.”
To illustrate what will happen during the eclipse, the museum will utilize the Koch Immersive Theater & Planetarium.
The theater usually shows educational movies, as well as live presentations describing the constellations and planets over Evansville. They will soon start a new live presentation, specifically to explain what happens during an eclipse.
“The eclipse is an awesome opportunity for people to kind of get their feet wet with astronomy, understand our relationship to the moon and the sun and then maybe kind of take a few steps further into stars, constellations, and other planets,” said Dr. Wishard.
The museum is also using their temporary exhibit space for an exhibit all about eclipses. Officials say they planned the space so guests of all ages can learn something.
They’re also planning two eclipse events; one will be free to the public on April 6. They plan to have activities, speakers, and planetarium shows. They’ll have another event the day of the eclipse for museum members, and they’ll watch the eclipse from their back sculpture garden.
Museum officials say they’re eager to get people excited about science.
“It is so cool and fun, and we don’t often see that,” said Dr. Wishard. “There are very rare opportunities like this eclipse that really connect the entire community and make people just kind of stop and appreciate science in a way that they don’t normally do in their day-to-day lives.”
To learn more about the eclipse, and everything going here at the Evansville Museum, visit https://emuseum.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/evansvillemuseum.
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