mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2022-12-09 08:27 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2022-12-09 08:27 pm
Entry tags:
Tuesday 12/06: Denver Museum of Nature and Science (Part 1, the not-dinosaurs)
Just kidding: One dinosaur.
The T-Rex at the entrance! :D
On Tuesday, Alex and I went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It's a favorite museum of mine, but we haven't been in several years.
We sorted out our plan of attack: we wanted to see the gemstones, the Native North American Cultures exhibit, the current temporary exhibit "Unseen Oceans", the dinosaurs/other prehistoric creatures, and after that we'd see how much time we had or how we were feeling.
This entry is about everything leading up to "Prehistoric Journey".
Malachite and Azurite, always favorites!
(It's almost all pictures of gemstones, lol.)
Not a gemstone, but appreciate the pride flag hanging right when you come in.
We actually almost forgot about the gems and minerals, and I don't know how! But they're on the first floor, so we headed there first.
UNfortunately, this was the exhibit where we ran into several school groups and... yikes. The kids, both elementary and high school age, were by and large extremely obnoxious and rude. Lots of screaming, shoving, slamming on glass... I try VERY hard to not ever be a "when I was your age..." type, but man, that shit would have gotten me and my classmates sent back to sit on the bus for the duration of the field trip. The shouting and pushing spiked Alex's anxiety pretty badly, to the point he almost had to leave. We did our best just to wait out the obnoxious groups (except that they kept coming in waves), but we mostly got to avoid them after this area.
Tourmaline! So many kinds!
Mind-bogglingly fine crystals!
Sliced agate, backlit!
An extremely fancy faceted quartz.
More fancy quartzes!
And another!
I'm in love with this tiny carved opal snail.
Not as nice a picture as I would have hoped, but a star ruby! I've seen star sapphires before, but not a star ruby. (I think Alex got a better picture of its star.)
Barite from Stoneham! Stoneham is WAAAAAAAY out in the middle of nowhere, but Alex and I went out there a couple of times when I was in college, and we found some very similar, beautiful blue barite. It's one of the few places in the world that has barite that looks like this!
Amazonite!
After this we went up to the Native North American Cultures hall. Alex (who is half Navajo) wanted to visit it last time we came to the museum, but we wound up running out of time. So we wanted to make sure we got to it this time!
It's also been partially redesigned since we last did visit it (which was... maybe 13+ years ago? I think it was when he visited me before he'd moved out here.)
I like a lot of how they have it set up - there are a lot of videos with modern tribes talking about context for some of the things. They have a LOT of art pieces from credited, modern artists that talk about the techniques and styles that are still in use, or how they've changed from historic pieces.
There are also some empty spaces that have plaques talking about artifacts that have been repatriated.
But somehow... I took very few pictures, and literally none of the ones I took turned out well! The lighting is very low, and the way some of the cases are set up definitely didn't lend itself to good photo opportunities due to the way the light reflected on camera. There are also some parts that I... just plain forgot I could be taking pictures. I'm okay with that.
After that, we visited the cafe and got some coffee (chai for me) and a pastry each for lunch. (I got some super flaky apricot thing that was SO good.)
Over by the seating area where we stopped for our lunch, there's a very small display, with a video on how animal mummies were created, and a falcon mummy.
The falcon mummy! (Unwrapped.)
It's very remarkably well-preserved.
Before visiting the rest of the Egyptian section, we swung by the current traveling exhibit, which is called "Unseen Oceans".
I was HOPING it was going to be about deep-sea creatures, like anglerfish and such...
Alas, not quite. Rather than bioluminescent creatures, it was more about the types of fluorescence that have been recently observed in some other species... basically stuff that looks "normal" under full-spectrum light, but under UV light, display a glow. Blacklight fish, lol.
Sea creature tornado. Some bright creature examples!
There were some other bits about deep sea exploration, and the types of probes that are mostly used for that these days. Some things about how much pressure there is the farther down you get, and some conservation info about the dangers of climate change.
Overall, an interesting enough exhibit, but nothing that super blew me away.
After that, the Egypt room was basically right there, so we ducked in there for a few minutes. (Not on our original list, but a quick jaunt.)
More about animal mummies!
And a very fancy sarcophagus lid.
Part two will be all the prehistoric stuff - dinosaurs and other. :)
The T-Rex at the entrance! :D
On Tuesday, Alex and I went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It's a favorite museum of mine, but we haven't been in several years.
We sorted out our plan of attack: we wanted to see the gemstones, the Native North American Cultures exhibit, the current temporary exhibit "Unseen Oceans", the dinosaurs/other prehistoric creatures, and after that we'd see how much time we had or how we were feeling.
This entry is about everything leading up to "Prehistoric Journey".
Malachite and Azurite, always favorites!
(It's almost all pictures of gemstones, lol.)
Not a gemstone, but appreciate the pride flag hanging right when you come in.
We actually almost forgot about the gems and minerals, and I don't know how! But they're on the first floor, so we headed there first.
UNfortunately, this was the exhibit where we ran into several school groups and... yikes. The kids, both elementary and high school age, were by and large extremely obnoxious and rude. Lots of screaming, shoving, slamming on glass... I try VERY hard to not ever be a "when I was your age..." type, but man, that shit would have gotten me and my classmates sent back to sit on the bus for the duration of the field trip. The shouting and pushing spiked Alex's anxiety pretty badly, to the point he almost had to leave. We did our best just to wait out the obnoxious groups (except that they kept coming in waves), but we mostly got to avoid them after this area.
Tourmaline! So many kinds!
Mind-bogglingly fine crystals!
Sliced agate, backlit!
An extremely fancy faceted quartz.
More fancy quartzes!
And another!
I'm in love with this tiny carved opal snail.
Not as nice a picture as I would have hoped, but a star ruby! I've seen star sapphires before, but not a star ruby. (I think Alex got a better picture of its star.)
Barite from Stoneham! Stoneham is WAAAAAAAY out in the middle of nowhere, but Alex and I went out there a couple of times when I was in college, and we found some very similar, beautiful blue barite. It's one of the few places in the world that has barite that looks like this!
Amazonite!
After this we went up to the Native North American Cultures hall. Alex (who is half Navajo) wanted to visit it last time we came to the museum, but we wound up running out of time. So we wanted to make sure we got to it this time!
It's also been partially redesigned since we last did visit it (which was... maybe 13+ years ago? I think it was when he visited me before he'd moved out here.)
I like a lot of how they have it set up - there are a lot of videos with modern tribes talking about context for some of the things. They have a LOT of art pieces from credited, modern artists that talk about the techniques and styles that are still in use, or how they've changed from historic pieces.
There are also some empty spaces that have plaques talking about artifacts that have been repatriated.
But somehow... I took very few pictures, and literally none of the ones I took turned out well! The lighting is very low, and the way some of the cases are set up definitely didn't lend itself to good photo opportunities due to the way the light reflected on camera. There are also some parts that I... just plain forgot I could be taking pictures. I'm okay with that.
After that, we visited the cafe and got some coffee (chai for me) and a pastry each for lunch. (I got some super flaky apricot thing that was SO good.)
Over by the seating area where we stopped for our lunch, there's a very small display, with a video on how animal mummies were created, and a falcon mummy.
The falcon mummy! (Unwrapped.)
It's very remarkably well-preserved.
Before visiting the rest of the Egyptian section, we swung by the current traveling exhibit, which is called "Unseen Oceans".
I was HOPING it was going to be about deep-sea creatures, like anglerfish and such...
Alas, not quite. Rather than bioluminescent creatures, it was more about the types of fluorescence that have been recently observed in some other species... basically stuff that looks "normal" under full-spectrum light, but under UV light, display a glow. Blacklight fish, lol.
There were some other bits about deep sea exploration, and the types of probes that are mostly used for that these days. Some things about how much pressure there is the farther down you get, and some conservation info about the dangers of climate change.
Overall, an interesting enough exhibit, but nothing that super blew me away.
After that, the Egypt room was basically right there, so we ducked in there for a few minutes. (Not on our original list, but a quick jaunt.)
More about animal mummies!
And a very fancy sarcophagus lid.
Part two will be all the prehistoric stuff - dinosaurs and other. :)
no subject
-steals the azurite and that nice faceted quartz-
no subject
no subject
no subject
Ugh, the obnoxious kids were frustrating. I'm glad that the school groups were mostly gone about an hour after we got there, but still.
no subject
no subject
no subject
I just love rocks, okay.
no subject
no subject
no subject