Saturday night was undoubtedly the high point for Yuri’s Night 2010, as dozens of parties around the world joined together in celebration of humanity and space. I was fortunate enough to be a (somewhat) short drive away from one of our NASA-affiliated events, Yuri’s Night Cleveland. Here’s my report from Saturday evening:
YN Cleveland was held at the Great Lakes Science Center, which also doubles as the visitor center for the NASA Glenn Research Center. The GLSC is a fantastic facility, with four stories of interactive science exhibits, some great views of Lake Erie, and a giant wind turbine near the front entrance. It also happens to be located right between the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Cleveland Browns Stadium, which doesn’t hurt either.
The exterior and windmill of the Great Lakes Science Center
The organizers had apparently fought tooth-and-nail to get a 1/6 scale model of the Space Shuttle installed on the second floor,
and the main floor had some nifty interactive exhibits, including a beanbag toss into lunar craters using 3-D visualization and a photo booth that printed out pictures of yourself in a spacesuit outside the International Space Station, as well as a decent-sized dance floor with live DJing. There was also a raffle out front that attendees could enter to win space art, nifty T-shirts, or a variety of other goodies:
Folks started coming in around 8 PM, and about half an hour later we started showing Destiny in Space and Hubble (both free with admission) on the GLSC’s giant IMAX screen. I’m afraid I didn’t take any pictures, but believe me when I say this screen was huge–it took up almost half a hemisphere on the giant dome screen, so that if you were looking at the screen you didn’t have anything else even close to your field of vision. Really breathtaking, especially for the Hubble Deep Field shots.
After the movies ended, folks started to file out and explore the museum, which had been more or less kept completely open for the entire evening. There were plenty of interactive exhibits for the young and old:
(I’ll admit I probably had a bit too much fun with the space shuttle lander simulator and the acoustic experiments, especially the theremin.)
Unfortunately, there was so much to do in the science center that it was tough finding people to actually go out and dance. Fortunately, we had some stormtroopers and Jedi to come to our rescue. Yes, the Star Wars costuming 501st Legion and their Rebel counterparts, Midwest Base, made it to Cleveland in droves, and pretty much every other person I saw had a huge smile on their face (this would include me) or were getting their picture taken with C-3PO or Darth Vader (this would also include me). Even Stacey Bagg, the organizer for YN Cleveland, was able to take some time out to help bring the Empire and Rebel Alliance together:
I could post a dozen pictures of the 501st, but I’ll restrain myself and just link to this lightsaber battle from YN Cleveland 2009 instead.
Anyway, these fine fellows took the initiative in really getting the party started on the dance floor, culminating in a stormtrooper-led conga line that eventually sucked in half the attendees and, at one point, went up and down the escalators. Of course, it was right about this time that we made our appearance on the Spacevidcast webcast:
I had to get going not too long afterward, unfortunately, but when I left at midnight the party was still going strong and showed no signs of stopping. I’d definitely recommend to anyone who has the chance to try and make it to YN Cleveland next year; I know I’ll be there.
