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