Deep Space

With John Glenn back in orbit--and scheduled to return to Earth Saturday around noon--spend some of your weekend looking at the sky and the machinery that got Glenn there in 1962 and now.

Friday Night

If you paid attention to the space shuttle launch last week, you probably heard about potential problems stemming from a meteor shower. Showers, nothing--it’s a storm. Called the Great Leonid, the meteor storm results when the Earth crosses the orbit of Comet Tempel-Tuttle around Nov. 16 and 17, stirring up tons of comet debris in the process. This kind of sky show--in dark areas 100 to 300 meteors an hour may be visible--comes along only every 30 years.

In preparation, check out “The Great Leonid Meteor Storm” at 8 p.m., a show at the John Drescher Planetarium (Santa Monica College, Technology Building, second floor, 1900 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. [310] 434-4223). At 7 p.m., the planetarium’s “Night Sky Show” will re-create the night sky and provide the latest information on space exploration. Tickets are $4, or $7 for the double-bill.

Saturday

If you’ve got time and gas to burn, drive north up the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway about 100 miles from Los Angeles, into the Mojave desert east of Lancaster, to Edwards Air Force Base, the place where modern flight was born.

Granted, this isn’t the greatest time in the world to visit the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum. Edwards has been on high security alert since the two embassy bombings in Africa. NASA, which normally leads two tours a day through its center on the base, has canceled all tours.

But the 2,400-square-foot museum is still open, biding for years in temporary quarters while plans molder away for a museum 25 times that size.

There aren’t a lot of hands-on activities for kids, but there are displays showing off Edwards’ incredible history. The first jet, the Bell XP-59A, flew here in 1942. Chuck Yeager, flying the Bell X-1, broke the sound barrier here in 1947. And the first space shuttle landed here in 1981.

The museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Reservations required. Call (805) 277-8050 at least one hour in advance of arrival.

While you’re in the high desert, check out Blackbird Airpark in Palmdale (at Air Force Plant 42 on the corner of 25th Street East and Avenue P. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays through Sundays. Free). It has the world’s only display of a Lockheed SR-71A with its Blackbird predecessor, the A-12.

Next door, peek at Plant 42 and the budding Plant 42 Heritage Airpark--an exhibit dedicated to the storied Air Force plant. Aircraft from the 1950s to the latest space shuttle prototypes have been worked on at Plant 42.

Sunday

Lots of people check out Griffith Observatory’s view of Los Angeles (see cover story), but try looking above the city, which is, after all, what the observatory is for. The giant telescope is open for a free look Tuesdays through Sundays from 7 to 9:45 p.m. if the sky is clear.

The Griffith Observatory Planetarium is showing “No Moon,” a multimedia presentation on what Earth would be like without a moon, at 3 and 7:30 p.m. For the kids, there’s the planetarium show “Voyage to the Planets” Saturdays and Sundays at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $4. Call (323) 664-1191. Or, just to get a report of what’s going on in the sky, call (323) 663-8171.