Watch the city and sky sparkle from the Griffith Observatory
The grounds around the Observatory are accessible every day, but the museum is only open on Friday through Sunday. The view from here is breathtaking, especially at night when Los Angeles is illuminated below. There are numerous displays inside, including a Tesla coil, a Foucault pendulum, and a planetarium presentation. Give yourself plenty of time before the roof-mounted 12-inch refracting telescope closes at 10 p.m.; otherwise, visit the front lawn's much less congested modern reflecting telescope. Just wanted to let you know that parking is now between $8 and $10 per hour, even though you can take the DASH bus up there for only 35 cents.
The displays and performances here are long enough to last you an hour or two. The Foucault pendulum, located directly beneath Hugo Ballin's renowned mural on the central rotunda, the handsome, cutting-edge Samuel Oschin Planetarium, and the complementary Hall of the Sky and Hall of the Eye exhibits are all located on the ground floor. These exhibits focus on how humans relate to the stars. The Cosmic Connection Corridor's cheesy jewelry displays lead down to the downstairs, where there are a variety of other brand-new exhibits.
You can watch a brief movie at the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater on the observatory's past and recent revival. The impact that meteorites and other falling debris have had on Earth is vividly and illuminatingly described in Pieces of the Sky. The Gunther Depths of Space has a bronze bust of Albert Einstein, clear descriptions of the planets, and a massive 2.46-gigapixel image of the night sky that was captured by the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County. Additionally, the Café at the End of the Universe serves above-average munchies.
