Saturday, September 04, 2010

Virtual Vacation: to the stars

August 24 I broke both my feet in a freak accident. Apparently I can't walk and carry the recycling bin at the same time. I had surgery on the worst foot this week. So now I'm laid up for about 8 weeks or more while the bones knit. This is the perfect opportunity for a virtual vacation. This particular one is based on a great book Guidebook for the Scientific Traveler: Visiting Astronomy and Space Exploration Sites Across America (Scientific Traveler) .

So, here's our itenerary:

  1. Washington DC: National Air and Space Museum; the Meteorite Gallery of the National Museum of Natural History; and the US Naval Observatory.
  2. Virginia: Udvar-Hazy Center; Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, and the Wallops Flight Facilty on Wallops Island.
  3. West Virginia: National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
  4. Florida: John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral
  5. Alabama: Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville
  6. Mississippi: Stennis Space Center
  7. Texas: Johnson Space Center in Houston; McDonald Observatory at Fort Davis; Odessa Meteor Crater; and the Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Gallery at Fort Worth.
  8. New Mexico: Chaco Cnayon National Historical Park; Meteorite Museum in Albuquerque; National Solar Observatory; New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo; Roswell; and the Very Large Array in Socorro.
  9. Arizona: Kitt Peak National Observatoryin Tucson; Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff; Meteor Crator; and the Museum at the Center for Meteorite Studies in Tempe.
  10. California: Ames Research Center at Moffett Field; Dryden Fligh Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base; Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles; Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena; Lick Observatory in San Jose; Mount Palomar Observatory in San Diego, and the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena.
  11. Hawaii: Keck Observatory
  12. Colorado: Chimney Rock Archaeological Area; Hovenweep National Monument at Cortez; and Mesa Verde National Park.
  13. Kansas: Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center at Hutchinson
  14. Wisconsin: Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bike Museum in Sparta. Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay.
  15. Illinois: Adler Planetarium in Chicago
  16. Ohio: Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland
  17. New York: Hall of Meteorites in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; and the Rose Center for Earth and Space Science

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Lyn!

Sorry to hear about your broken ankle. Physics is an evil master!

I am an employee at NASA Ames and am happy to see that we're on your virtual vacation list. Should you ever make your way out to Northern California, you're welcome to contact me and stop by ARC for a tour of the public areas of ARC and some information on what we do. If you're in the area in October there is a series of public (free) lectures, "What's NASA done for you lately?".

Best of luck;

matt@nasa