Thursday Doors: Griffith Observatory

This post goes along with my previous post about my trip to Griffith Park and Observatory where I saw the Foucault’s Pendulum. It also goes along with my posts about NASA Ames and Hangar One.

I love space! Even today, one of my favorite lessons to teach is Celestial Mechanics. I feel mostly incomprehension, and a little pity, for people whose reaction to scientific stories about the physics of the universe is tepid, at best. Even when faced with a real story about how the building blocks of the cosmos were forged, they always want to know about the humans. (Note the Hollywood sign in the distance!)

But then, I haven’t really emotionally absorbed the lessons of relativity, and like a kid, I still like to pretend to believe in the possibility of Warp Drive. The study of astronomy has always seemed to me to be a bit like what is pictured on the featured door: an ancient runic language, the deciphering of which would yield the key to the secrets of the universe.

I can’t be the only one who has thought this way. The way the observatory is built, on a hilltop overlooking a vast domain, reminds me of the pyramids of ancient Egypt, or Stonehenge.

 

And the doors here too make you feel like you are entering an inner sanctum.

 

This telescope isn’t used for research anymore. It’s too small, and the light pollution from the surrounding area makes it hard to see anything but the brightest of objects. But people still line up by the hundreds on clear nights to get a chance to look through it.

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Visit Norm 2.0’s post for this week and feel free to join in the fun!