9/20/2023 0 Comments Lights out tour![]() ![]() The wall then angles away again into a corner. Overhead, large text poses the question "When was the last time you saw the Milky Way?". The wall then angles into the gallery and features two photographs, one showing a nighttime cityscape and one showing a starry sky over a rugged landscape. Switching to the right side of the entryway, two small text panels on the wall thank the exhibit's content contributors and list the exhibit's accessibility features, including tactile objects with Braille, a tactile kiosk with Braille and audio description, and a QR code to this descriptive tour. To the right of these five object cases is a large reproduction of a stylized painting of an electric bulb, along with quotes that explore the complicated, conflicting, and changing feelings people have had about artificial lights. Just beyond this photo, the wall angles into the gallery, where a series of five pedestal display cases explain how changes in lighting technologies through time led to today's illuminated night skies. The left half of the planet is in darkness but is studded with pinpricks of light from cities. Next to the introductory text panel is a four-foot-square photograph of Earth taken from space. Higher up on the wall, large text asks the question: "How much light at night is enough?"īefore we dive into detailed descriptions, let’s get an overview of the entry space, starting with the left side of the entryway. Yet there is hope-there are simple things we can do to reclaim the stars." But light pollution from artificial lights has made our nights brighter, affecting natural ecosystems and human cultures. For billions of years, life on Earth has danced to this cycle. A text panel on the left wall reads: "Day and night. The first section of our tour, just inside the rotunda entryway, introduces the exhibition’s main messages. The carpet is dark gray and the overall light levels are low, but bright spotlights illuminate objects, images, tactile elements, and interactives. Different sections of the exhibition use accents of pink, purple, yellow, orange, light blue and green on wall text and panels. At the top of the doorway, a semicircular band bears the exhibit’s title: "Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky." Inside, the gallery walls are painted dark gray, dark blue, and black, reminiscent of a night sky. Let’s begin our tour starting at the entrance from the second floor rotunda walkway that overlooks the taxidermy elephant.Ī tall doorway leads into the darkened gallery. Each thematic section includes a brief description of the space, a summary of the content, and detailed descriptions of key images, objects, or tactile elements in that section. This tour divides the exhibit gallery into nine thematic sections corresponding to big titles on the gallery walls, and takes you through them one by one. If you enter from the side facing the Constitution Avenue staircase, walk through the exhibit to the other entrance. The tour begins at the entrance from the rotunda walkway on the second floor. This visual description tour was developed to make the exhibition’s key messages, images, and objects more accessible to visitors who are blind or have low vision. The exhibition is located on the second floor of the museum and primarily features large photographs, as well as objects, some tactile and interactive elements, and a theater with a narrated program.Īccessibility features in this exhibition include tactile objects with Braille, a tactile kiosk with Braille and audio description, and signs at each entrance with a QR code to this descriptive tour. Discover how light pollution affects the night sky, wildlife, and humans, and what you can do about it. Welcome to Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. ![]()
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