Solar Eclipse October 14

Open at 9:00 am

Early planetarium show – 9:30 am

Eclipse: Memphis eclipse times

Begins – 10:32 am

Max/Middle – 12:01 pm

Ends – 1:35 pm

INCLUDED WITH GENERAL ADMISSION TICKET

Get your Eclipse Glasses & More at Our Gift Shop

Come enjoy the eclipse with safe telescopic viewing and fun activities – weather permitting. In the event of inclement weather, activities will be moved indoors. There will be live on-screen coverage in the Mansion Theater.

Activities:

Planetary Walk – Illustrates the relative distance between planets in our solar system, which is made up of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity including dwarf planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and meteors.

Make a Camera – Make your own camera obscura/aperture for safe sun viewing.

Wood and Clay Model Eclipse Demonstration – Comes with take-home instructions. Create a scale model of the Earth/Moon system to show the following:

In a lunar eclipse, Earth’s shadow completely covers the moon. In a solar eclipse, the Moon’s shadow falls upon the Earth.

Big Sun, Small Moon – Demonstrates that the further away something is, the smaller it appears. Use a model to show that eclipses happen because the Moon and Sun look like they are the same size in the sky based on their distance from Earth.

Pocket Solar System – Make your own pocket guide to the planets and other objects that orbit our star, the Sun.

Sun, Moon, Earth Bracket Toy – Explore the difference between rotation and revolution. Model the basic geometry of solar and lunar eclipses.

Edible Moon Phases – Use sandwich cookies and filling to model the part of the Moon that is illuminated by the Sun in each of the 8 lunar phases.

Moonbear’s Shadow Storytime (pre-recorded and played on repeat) and Experiment – See how a shadow is created when an object blocks light from falling on a surface. Prove that an object’s shadow changes when you change the position of the object, the light source, or both.