Griffith Observatory

The remodeled Griffith Observatory is definitely a sight to behold. A white obelisk with many statues of renowned astronomers engraved upon its alcove sidings stands tall, in front of this impressive building. Although this was my first visit to the Griffith’s, my previous experience at the Dominion Observatory in Victoria, Vancouver Island paled in comparison to what Griffith Observatory had to offer.

At the Observatory, I had the opportunity to watch both shows offered at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium. The first program, titled “Centered in the Universe”, introduced to the audience a brief history of astronomy and the constellations, followed by how the understanding of stars has developed over the centuries and how this knowledge of the cosmos has helped humankind understand more about our home, the Earth. The program further revealed how incomprehensibly vast the universe is, and that Earth is but an infinitesimally small part, but still a part, of the still expanding and mysterious universe.

The second program, titled “Water is Life”, continues off the first program’s premise, but elaborates on the importance of liquid water and its connection to the development of life. The show continues on by presenting the celestial bodies in the Solar System, other than Earth, where liquid water probably exists. One such example is Jupiter’s moon, Europa, a place where scientists speculate the possibility of life near the moon’s under water volcanic flows.

In addition to the planetarium shows, the observatory displays many exhibits which were both educational and inventive. One of the exhibits which attracted my attention was the Foucault Pendulum, located at the main entrance. This huge pendulum continuously swings on one axis but as the hours pass, it hits pegs along a circle on the ground. This exhibit was built to prove that Earth is a rotating sphere.

Other exhibits included the basement circular corridor which pictorially represented in a creative timeline, the age of the universe from the Big Bang to current day. Also in the basement, a vast exhibit featuring all the planets in the solar system and their details were the interest of many observers. Of particular interest were the floor mechanisms which allowed exhibit participants to see their weight on the various planets.

Supplementary to these, the exhibit of the Tesla Coil, a fascinating device devised by Nikola Tesla over a hundred years ago, was meant to transmit electricity wirelessly. There were also hallways on the side of the observatory which showed how the moon and sun produce the tidal forces, equinoxes and solstices. Further exploration revealed basement level one, which showcased a variety of meteorites and presented computerized simulations of impacts of a planet, such as Earth, with various sized asteroids. On the whole, the Griffith Observatory, with its myriad of exhibitions and shows, is truly able to enlighten and educate the multitude of crowds which come to visit.