Adler Planetarium near Lake Michigan, Chicago, Illinois

© Amazing Aerial Agency/Offset by Shutterstoc

Maybe we should be looking up

When it first flicked on the projector lights in 1930, the Adler Planetarium in Chicago was the only one in the Western Hemisphere, and it featured an innovative new lens imported from Germany. But the American public's fascination with stars and distant worlds, it turned out, was skyrocketing. By 1934, the Adler had welcomed over a million visitors.

And though our love for space endures, these days in Chicagoland it's tough to catch a clear night sky past all those wonderful bright lights of the Windy City. That helps explain why the Adler still pulls half a million visitors in a typical year, with three state-of-the-art auditoriums and even a massive telescope that lets visitors view far-off galaxies.