eLearning Collaborative

Saturday night, we decided to go to the local planetarium: Griffith Observatory.

Griffith Observatory

Tonight Griffith was open to the public. Amateur astronomers set their telescopes up in the front yard and pointed them at the moon and plantets like Jupiter, allowing people to see them (after waiting in line of course!) There were demonstrations going on inside, and it was just packed. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of people fit inside this building. One cool thing about Griffith is if you look across the hills, you can see the infamous Hollywood sign in the hills.

Hollywood: here I come ;]

On the outside, Griffith is a beautifully designed building; inside, there are even cooler things. A seismograph (instrument used to record movement of the ground and to measure Earthquakes) was located in the basement of the observatory, which had recorded the recent movement of the plates in the Earthquake that occured just days before we got to California. There was a focult pendulum right in the front entrance, showing the tilt of the Earth. There was a model of the Solar System, light experiments were set up, a huge periodic table of elements, and a replica of a real telescope.

The ceiling: of Griffith...its to beautifully painted =]

Focult Pendulum

Periodic Table Of Element...ignore the random people

Seismograph! This was so cool, it recorded the ground movement when all of us jumped up and down at the same exact time !

After we explored the inside of Griffith Observatory, we went up onto the roof. The view from the roof is so amazing, you can see the entire city. You can see all the building and city lights from LA, and the spotlights of Hollywood. You can also see an entire layer of smog directly above the city (ha) but its still pretty.

LA!

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