The Temporary Observatory -- Scope It Out

Your best view of outer space in Los Angeles is from a satellite.

The Griffith Observatory Satellite, that is.

It’s a makeshift observatory and education center that has been set up at the base of the world’s most popular stargazing mountain by astronomers reacting to the temporary shutdown of the Griffith Observatory.

The observatory -- with its Zeiss refracting telescope -- was closed a year ago for an $83-million overhaul and expansion. It is scheduled to reopen in late 2005.

The closure left something of a black hole in the local astronomical community. That’s because nearly 2 million visitors a year are drawn to Mt. Hollywood to take in a spectacular view of both the heavens and the Los Angeles Basin.

So four months ago, officials opened a temporary observatory a few miles away that they hope will fill at least one of those voids.

The new Griffith Observatory Satellite certainly isn’t as grand as the copper-domed Art Deco landmark it fills in for.

It is a modest collection of trailer-like modular buildings grouped beneath eucalyptus trees in the southeast corner of the Los Angeles Zoo parking lot at 4800 Western Heritage Way. Lights from the parking lot bathe the place with a distracting glow at night. Traffic noise from nearby Interstate 5 provides a steady background roar.

But astronomers pull out a portable telescope each evening and aim it past the trees toward Saturn. And workers are preparing to install a miniature dome ceiling in a special trailer that will turn it into a temporary planetarium for daily star lectures.

“People are surprised we’re alive,” said Ed Krupp, Griffith Observatory’s director. “Schools all over the Southland were beginning to fret that Griffith Observatory was closed. Many people thought we’d be going into hibernation during the construction project.”

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Griffith Observatory to Los Angeles.

Built in 1935 on one of the most prominent sites in the city, its estimated 70 million visitors have made it the world’s most-visited astronomical observatory. About 7 million people have gazed thorough its 12-inch Zeiss, more than any other telescope anywhere.

More people are believed to have seen Halley’s Comet, the Hale-Bopp Comet and Comet Hyakutake through Griffith Observatory’s telescopes than anywhere else.

Its 660-seat planetarium theater was the first built west of the Mississippi River. More than 13 million people have observed its night-sky shows, and World War II aviators and moon-walking Apollo astronauts learned how to navigate using the stars inside its dome.

The planetarium’s familiar ant-shaped Zeiss projector will be replaced by a computerized fiber-optic laser projector costing $3 million. It is being paid for by the nonprofit group Friends of the Observatory.

“The old projector was sparking, hanging together with chewing gum and baling wire,” Krupp said. “The observatory was saved from impending catastrophe by closing gracefully for the construction project.”

A 1964 model, the old projector will be preserved and displayed “as an historic artifact” in new underground exhibit space being built in front of the observatory.

Its replacement, Krupp predicts, will project “the most awe-inspiring dome of stars in the world -- stars that have escaped the grasp of people in the city because of the lights.”

The satellite’s $80,000 temporary planetarium will be installed next month. It will use a video projector to cast images of stars on a 25-foot-wide dome. When the main observatory reopens, the projector and its little dome will be moved there for use in lecture programs.

The satellite is open from 1 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekends. Admission is free, just as it was at the main observatory.

Once the mini-planetarium is installed, Krupp, his 10-member staff and 30 part-time specialized lecturers and guides will gradually resume school programs at the satellite.

About 70 paid part-timers helped run the observatory. Krupp said he and the Friends of the Observatory were fearful of permanently losing those specialists if the observatory were to totally shut down for four years.

“We know that the city view is what a lot of people go to Griffith Observatory for -- we’re always on the Top 10 lists of Los Angeles’ most romantic places. We can’t do much about the view at the satellite. But we can provide an education program and exhibits and we can put a telescope in front of people.”

So the Griffith Observatory Satellite is beginning its three-year orbit.

“It’s in a terrible place, unless you consider the alternative: no place at all. We’re working with the Department of Water and Power to do something about the parking lot lights,” Krupp said.

“We can work around the trees -- you don’t need the whole sky. And we have an open patch of Griffith Park golf course over there we can use if we need it. We plan to use the Gene Autry Museum next door for some Mars telescope parties.”

For now, Griffith Observatory’s 300-pound entryway pendulum, many of its chunks of meteorites and most of its memories are crated up and stored away.

But for Los Angeles astronomy fans, things are looking up.