Week 2 at The Adler Planetarium

Hey all!

First off I'm so sorry for a really late blog. This weekend was hella drama with outreach and helping my sister move to a new place in Chicago. I'm without wifi, sooo tired, and extremely sore but still ready for week 3 at the Adler.

Adler's been really good to me! I've connected a lot with my supervisors and many of the other interns--the Adler crew is really down to earth, surprisingly. 

The week started off just as the one before archiving with the collections department using the Minisis database. The process was getting a bit repetitive but it's great getting to know the Adler more and more. My supervisors know so much about the planetarium it trips me out how they can retain all of that information. One of my supervisors Sara gave me a few articles pertaining to the museum and I found one that spoke of the planetarium's first projector to be most interesting. The Zeiss projector, used to project the stars and planets in a planetarium, was created during WWII, and its true creator Rudolf Staurbel who was not credited enough was married to a Jewish woman. During this time the Zeiss company was going under new management--Nazi management. These new directors basically gave Staurbel a choice to either divorce his wife or loose his job. He decided to quit his job but he was killed anyway, his wife killed herself after foreboding coming Nazis, and his adult children found and sent to concentration camps. It's a really sad story that I won't go too into detail about, but this is what I really love about working with archives, discovering these hidden histories and anecdotes that allow me to truly connect with the artifacts.

Tuesday morning my supervisor Sara in collections had an appointment so I was helping out the teen intern supervisor with a day camp where the students assembled a rover and once finished they had to guide it through a little maze to mars.

On Thursday I was able to accompany a group of teachers and astronomers offsite to Indiana to launch a balloon into our planet's stratosphere. I was in charge of plotting the balloon's route using the information given from a tracker. One of the trackers ripped off the whole system and led us 100 feet into a thick cornfield, it was so trippy walking through(even picked me some corn). Though the mission wasn't a complete success the trip was a lot of fun because I was actually able to work out in the field, chasing the ballon in a van filled with educated and accomplished astronomers. And even though a lot of the time I could not fully comprehend their discussions quantum physics it was great to be included and witness such scientific vernacular used in a normal conversation.

Saturday morning I finally got to do outreach with two of my supervisors at a farmer's market. It's a partnership with the Chicago Public Library called Maker MOB which is essentially a pop-up community craft and various farmer's markets and community events. The craft for this specific Maker MOB was creating stomp-launch rockets, where folks had to make little rockets out of paper, ping pong balls, and tape and then attach it to this contraption that launches it when air rushes out after being stomped on. It was a great activity and easy to do at home. The launcher is just an empty liter soda bottle connected to a floaty noodle thing with a medium sized PVC pipe or any hard tube-like thing....I dare y'all to try it! It was really nice to being doing outreach again and working with young folks, but I'll be real honest I almost fainted it was so hawwwwwt!! After being in hella heat all morning, my supervisor and I went out to eat some hella bawwwmb Mexican food from a place called Los Comales, courtesy of the Adler Planetarium *flips hair.*

I think I'm the most grounded that I've ever been, and I've got YAP to thank for that. Being out here, commuting and living in a place that is completely unfamiliar is unbelievable. I've gotten to process a lot of trauma from my past and figure out some issues that I've been dealing with since before Washington Week. Granted I'm staying with folks that I know but the majority of the time I'm cooking for myself, waking myself up, and even going out on adventures during my spare time on my own. The night before the balloon launch I went to a show by myself in the North part of Chicago and it was probably one of the best nights of my life! One of my favorite psychedelic cumbia punx bands from East Los Angeles is doing a USA tour right now and I was so lucky to catch them in Chicago. They're called Thee Commons...they're funky...y'all should check them out. I got to actually chill with the band and the lead singer took me up to dance on the stage(cuz y'all already know I was killin' it with my cumbia moves *flips hair again*).

I'm hoping y'all are great! And sending every single one of y'all needed energy for positive growth.

Thinking of my YAP familia,
Spooky Steph