Exhibitions at the Science Center

Spark your imagination and indulge your curiosity in Chabot's interactive and hands-on exhibitions. Be sure to visit "Beyond Blastoff: Surviving in Space" and take your photo in the weightlessness of space. Train like an astronaut or experience what it's like to perform tasks on a space walk. Tour the planets (including Pluto) in Solar Go Round and make sure to take photo in our Mercury Transport Capsule on your way to the Moon Odyssey exhibition.

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Current Exhibits

Tales of the Maya Skies

Chabot’s Tales of the Maya Skies planetarium show features the scientific achievements and cosmology of the Maya. The companion exhibit includes ten graphic panels and two interactive exhibits that supplement the planetarium show and engage Chabot’s primarily family audience. The exhibit presents the ancient Maya civilization, Maya cosmology, Maya math, Maya language and writing, the Maya calendar, and the significance of 2012. The exhibit will be displayed at Chabot for approximately one year; all content will be bilingual in English and Spanish.

Beyond Blastoff: Surviving in Space

NOW OPEN!

Get a glimpse into the life of an astronaut, and experience the mixture of exhilaration, adventure, and confinement that is living and working in space. See real spacesuits, spacecraft, and astronaut food. Try out astronaut exercise gear and space tools, and picture yourself in a weightless environment. Learn how astronauts cope with the physical and mental challenges of weightlessness, isolation, and a grueling workload.

Chabot Observatories

A View to the Stars

Since 1883, countless visitors have gazed through the Chabot telescopes at the wonders of the night sky. Chabot Observatories: A View to the Stars, explores the history of the Chabot Observatories and how its historic telescopes continue to be used today. Daytime visitors can virtually operate a telescope, experiment  with mirrors and lenses to understand how telescopes create images of distant objects, and travel though more than a century of Chabot's history via multimedia kiosks, historical images, and artifact displays.

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Chabot's original location was in Oakland's Lafayette Square

Chabot's observatory domes glow against the San Francisco skyline. (Photo by Carter Roberts)

Destination Universe

Take a journey from our Sun to the farthest reaches of the cosmos! Along the way, you'll see where stars are born, how they die, meet nebulae of all kinds, and travel to distant galaxies. Experience the Origins Theater; crawl into a black hole; see what happens when galaxies collide; and view stunning space images!

Kinetic Sculpture The Wave, by Reuben Margolin

Photo by Dan Burkhart

Visible and invisible waves are all around us. Waves ripple in water, a vibrating guitar string, or a wriggling Slinky; sound waves are heard in the form of speech, music, or a barking dog. Energy radiates from stars as electromagnetic waves.

Suspended above Chabot’s main lobby, Reuben Margolin’s large-scale kinetic sculpture will captivate visitors with its fluid movement. The Wave invites contemplation from a variety of perspectives: as a mesmerizing kinetic sculpture; as a visualization of the complexities of wave motion and related scientific and mathematical concepts; and as an intricate and beautiful mechanical device.

Kinetic artist Reuben Margolin’s work combines the logic of mathematics with inspiration drawn from the beauty and patterns of nature. His work has also been shown at the Exploratorium, the Aquarium of the Pacific, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

For more information on the artist’s work, go to reubenmargolin.com

One Giant Leap: A Moon Odyssey

Take a simulated Moon-walk, try on a space helmet, climb into a Mercury capsule, and land a lunar module!

Chabot's new hands-on exhibit explores legends and science fiction about the Moon; the Space Race and the Moon landings; and the Earth-Moon system. Learn what the Moon is made of, how it affects the Earth, what causes Moon phases, gravity on the Moon, and more. You can even take a look at an ancient piece of the Moon up close! The exhibit includes space artifacts and replicas, from Sputnik and Mercury to Gemini and Apollo.

Solar-Go-Round

Take a tour of the Solar System, from the radiant Sun and the ringed planet Saturn, to giant Jupiter and far-away Pluto. Discover what makes the planets go round, then design a solar system and launch your planets into orbit. Find out how rocks from outer space can change a planet's surface and climate, then try making craters yourself. Hunt for signs of water on other planets, find out about the weather on Mars and Titan, and learn how telescopes and robotic spacecraft are helping us explore our planetary neighbors.

Sponsored by Chevron Corporation

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