POLAR RINK, a synthetic ice rink opens at the MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

This is the new skating rink at the AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY that opened last November 22. Called the POLAR RINK, it features a 17-foot-tall model of a polar bear in the center. The 150-by-80 foot rink is open through February 28. Located in the center of this outdoor rink, the polar bear is made of openwork stainless steel and decorated with pine boughs and twinkling lights. The rink is located on the on the Arthur Ross Terrace, with views of the museum’s Rose Center for Earth and Space. The rink is unique in that it is made from "synthetic" ice, which some skaters say is more difficult to skate in than real ice. The rink can accomodate 200 skaters per session.

Tickets for a 45-minute skate session, including skate rental: $10 for adults, $9 for students and seniors, $8 for children ages 3-12. There are reduced rates for museum members. Hours: Sundays - Thursday: noon to 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays, holidays: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fine print: “All children under 10 must be accompanied by someone 16 years of age or older.” Skaters will be able to enter the rink from the Weston Entrance on Columbus Avenue at 79th Street or from the the Terrace stairs.

ART of DIORAMA: Recreating Nature at the AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

When I visited the American Museum of Natural History to see the Butterfly Conservatory, I took photos of the diorama at the Hall of North American Mammals. These dioramas are created by renowned naturalists, artists, photographers, taxidermists and other museum personnel who blended their talents.

From the American Museum of natural History website:

James Perry Wilson (1889-1976), a master of artful illusion, painted the backgrounds for many of the dioramas at the Museum, including those in the Hall of North American Mammals. In addition to accurately capturing every detail, his paintings evoke the intangible feel of the places they depict. This is owed in part to Wilson's dizzyingly precise perspective, one of his signature qualities. In his dioramas the real materials of the foreground merge impeccably with the painted background, uniting the two- and three-dimensional into a seamless whole. Creating these illusions involved a great deal of research. To prepare the bison diorama, Wilson traveled to Wyoming in 1938 with a scientific specialist and another artist. There Wilson made color sketches, took photographs, and collected specimens for the foreground of the scene. On his return he painstakingly reproduced the Wyoming plains on the curved walls of the diorama. Other dioramas in the hall feature bighorn sheep, two moose locked in combat, and watchful jaguar.

BUTTERFLIES at the American Museum of Natural History

I made these photos of butterflies (live or preserved) last Saturday at the BUTTERFLY CONSERVATORY at the AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, a re-created tropical forest environment filled with over 500 live butterflies. The conservatory will run through May 25, 2009. The museum is located at Central Park West at 79th Street in Manhattan.

Butterflies and moths make up a large group of insects known as the Order Lepidoptera (lep-i-DOP-ter-ah). The name—from the Greek lepido, "scale", and ptera, "wings"—refers to a prominent feature of adult butterflies and moths, the tiny scales that cover the wings and the rest of the body.

Adult butterflies are wonderfully diverse in shape, size, and color. Active during the day, they live almost everywhere around the world, from Arctic tundra to tropical rain forests.

There are more than 250,000 known species of Lepidoptera, of which about 18,000 are butterflies. Based on their anatomy, butterflies are classified into five families. This exhibition features butterflies from three of the families: the Pieridae (PYAIR-i-dee), commonly known as whites and sulphurs; the Papilionidae (pah-pill-ee-ON-i-dee), or swallowtails; and the Nymphalidae (nim-FAL-i-dee), which includes morphos, longwings and others.