The next day we visited the American Museum of Natural History we had been here on our last trip to New York, but this museum could take easily take several FULL days of study.
The first thing we did was to watch “Journey to the Stars” a short film narrated by Whoppi Goldberg about the life and death of stars, like our sun. The movie is shown inside a globe within the four story tall planetarium of the museum – quite a sight in and of itself!
On the bottom floor of the planetarium the best display is the Willamette Meteorite (so named because it was found in Willamette, Oregon) weighing 15.5 tons! It is made of metalic iron. Thousands of years ago it traveled at 64,000 kilometers per hour and crashed into the earth’s surface. The top surface (see pictures) is covered with large cavities. This is because over the years the rainwater reacted with sulfur within the meteorite, creating sulfuric acid, which then ate away at the iron of the meteorite.
After the movie we wandered through the African Room. where there are panoramas of the various climates, and geographic areas of Africa including the birds, insects reptiles and mammals native to the area. The panorama also included the real animals, some birds and reptiles that have been preserved by taxidermy which make the displays really come to life.
We completed our stay with lunch in the food court, very nice, but not cheep!!
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