Don Harrington Discovery Center is a nonprofit interactive science center and

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

in Amarillo,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, U.S. The Discovery Center is located in the city's hospital district and is named after philanthropist Don Harrington. Located in front of the Discovery Center is the Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument. The planetarium was renovated in 2003 and was implemented with the Digistar 3,

fulldome video Fulldome refers to immersive dome-based video display environments. The dome, horizontal or tilted, is filled with real-time (interactive) or pre-rendered (linear) computer animations, live capture images, or composited environments. Although t ...

projection technology. Most of the Discovery Center's income comes from admission fees, membership fees, special events and programs, while the rest comes from event and exhibit sponsorships and grants from charitable organizations such as Amarillo Area Foundation and the Harrington Foundation. The Don Harrington Discovery Center is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization that largely relies on the support of its community. The Discovery center is a member of the

Association of Children's Museums The Association of Children's Museums (ACM) is a Washington, D.C.–based organization that represents more than 300 children's museums in 23 countries throughout the world. The association began in 1962 as the American Association of Youth Muse ...

Reciprocal Program and

Association of Science-Technology Centers The Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) is a non-profit, global organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States, that provides professional support for science centers, museums, and related institutions. ASTC's g ...

Passport Program, allowing members to receive free or reduced admission at various museums all across America.

Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument

The Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument was designed in 1967 by Peter Muller Munk Associates (located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) and built in 1968 with the assistance of

U.S. Steel The United States Steel Corporation is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, ...

to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of

helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...

. The Time Columns Monument is a six-story high stainless steel structure containing four time capsules, three of which form the legs of the monument and one which stands erect. The capsules are intended to be opened in 25, 50, 100, and 1,000 years from the date it was erected in 1968. In 1982 the Helium Monument was airlifted by helicopter from I-40 and Nelson to its current site at the Don Harrington Discovery Center. In 1993, the first time capsule was opened, on schedule, during a two-day celebration of the 25th birthday of the monument. The contents of that capsule are in the collection of the Discovery Center, and are not typically on display to the public. On September 29, 2018, the second time capsule was opened during a special event celebrating the Amarillo Helium Plant and the

sesquicentennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded. Most countries celebrate national anniversaries, typically called national days. These could be the date of independence of the nation or the adoption o ...

anniversary of the discovery of helium. Items preserved in the capsule include stamps, documents, toy cars, and other miscellaneous effects. These items are now officially on display at the Discovery Center. At this event, the Discovery Center announced that it was accepting suggestions for new items to be placed into the now-empty capsule, which will be opened once more in 2093, 75 years in the future. Over three hundred items donated to the Discovery Center were subsequently sealed in November 2018. The 100 and 1,000 year capsules are still scheduled to open in 2068 and 2968, respectively. Among the items stored in the monument is a

passbook A passbook or bankbook is a paper book used to record bank or building society transactions on a deposit account. Traditionally, a passbook was used for accounts with a low transaction volume, such as savings accounts. A bank teller or postm ...

to a bank account containing a $10 deposit made in 1968, preserved within the 1,000 year time capsule. The monument also serves as a

sun dial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat p ...

, its features oriented to the Sun to tell the time.

Notes

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External links

The HarringtonsDon Harrington Discovery Center official web site
Landmarks in Amarillo, Texas Science museums in Texas Children's museums in Texas Museums in Potter County, Texas Planetaria in the United States Buildings and structures in Amarillo, Texas Tourist attractions in Amarillo, Texas Association of Science-Technology Centers member institutions

Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument

See also

Notes

External links