Chabot Space & Science Center

Chabot Space & Science Center is a non-profit organization and community resource located on 13 acres in Redwood Regional Park in Oakland, in the middle of the largest coastal redwood stand in the East Bay. Chabot features a 241-seat full dome planetarium, interactive and hands-on exhibits, space artifacts, a giant screen theater, a Challenger Learning Center, and the only regularly available research-level telescopes for weekly live viewing in the Western United States. Chabot's mission is to inspire and educate learners of all ages about the Universe and the Earth.

 

The Galaxy Explorers program for high school students at Chabot Space & Science Center offers hands-on, fun, community service work. Explorers are performing live public science demonstrations and explaining interactive exhibits. The assignments take place on weekends , holidays and holidays. Galaxy Explorers also delivers exciting outreach programs at schools , community centers and festivals.

 

The Challenger Mission Field Trip includes all of the Chabot exhibitions, the Planetary Show and the Student Mission in Grades 5-12. The entire class takes part in an immersive, simulated space adventure. Students experience living and working in a realistic spacecraft and an accurate mission control room. Working as one team, they have to solve critical challenges in order to successfully achieve their mission objectives. Optional pre-and post-trip activities, lessons and videos are included to extend student learning beyond field trips.

 

The institution began as the Oakland Observatory in 1883 with a donation from Anthony Chabot to the City of Oakland. The original Oakland Observatory was located near downtown Oakland and provided a public viewing telescope for the community. It has also served as an official timekeeping station for the entire Bay Area for decades, measuring time with its transit telescope.

 

The observatory moved to its location on Mountain Boulevard in 1915 due to increasing light pollution and urban congestion. The facility was significantly expanded in the mid-1960s. Throughout this time, the Chabot Science Center, as it was renamed, was staffed mainly by Oakland Unified School District staff and volunteers. In 1977, seismic safety concerns put an end to the access of public school students to the original observatory. The observatory building remained open to the general public, but school activities were limited to the outlying classroom and planetary buildings.

 

Recognizing the need to restore full access to the facility, either by repair or relocation, Chabot Observatory & Science Center was established in 1989 as a Joint Powers Agency with the City of Oakland, the Unified School District of Oakland, and the East Bay Regional Park District, in collaboration with the Eastbay Astronomical Society, and was recognized as a non-profit organization in 1992. The project was led by Dr. Michael D. Reynolds, Executive Director and CEO of Chabot, in October 1996 with the construction of the new 88,000-square-foot (8,200 m2) Science Center starting in May 1998.

 

In January 2000, in anticipation of the opening of the new facility, the organization changed its name from Chabot Observatory & Science Center to Chabot Space & Science Center. The new name was chosen to better convey the organization's focus on astronomy and space science, while communicating both the broad range and the technologically advanced nature of the programs available at the new Science Center.

 

Opened on August 19, 2000, the Chabot Space & Science Center is an 80,000-square-foot (8,000 m2) state-of-the-art science and technology education facility located on a 13-acre (53,000 m2) site on the hills of Oakland , California. Formerly a member of the Smithsonian Affiliations program, the museum is no longer an affiliate.

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