This is Big!

Orion!!!

For you Orion Nebula fans, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope are teaming up to release their latest look at the nebula. It’s just stunning. You can read more about it at their websites, but for now, I’m sharing it with you for your staring pleasure!

Keeping It Working

So, they’re going to fix Hubble and bring it up to modern spec in 2008. That’s great and about time somebody used some common sense about our nation’s (the world’s, actually) valuable astronomy asset. Sure the mission can be dangerous, but the dangers are known. And the return is great. As is the respect for what HST can do.

HST's view of 838 Monocerotis. Read more here.

HST does drop-dead gorgeous images, like the recent view of V838 Monocerotis, above. It delivers multi-wavelength views (very near infrared and ultraviolet) of objects to let us know how they look in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. And, since its launch and first servicing mission, HST has taken us farther out to the most distant reaches of the cosmos. What’s not to like about that?

So, I’m glad they’re going to restore HST and bring it up to date. It’s a respectable and famous observatory, and worth far more to humanity than a lot of other things our tax dollars fund.

Re-Opening the Universe

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa gives a short opening speech on the north steps of Griffith Observatory

I’ve been writing off and on over the past year about the Griffith Observatory project, which has encompassed a complete renovation of the building as well as the addition of new exhibits. My part of the project has been to write the content for all the exhibits. Griffith Observatory opens to the public again this Friday, November 3rd.

We attended the opening Galactic Gala for the observatory last Sunday night, and it was a very memorable event. Mostly I wanted to attend to see the rest of the team I worked with all this time, but also to celebrate the re-opening of a singular institution—there is nothing like Griffith Observatory anywhere in the world. As director Ed Krupp has mentioned many times, it’s the only public observatory in the world that has had more people look through its telescope than any other telescope in the world. That alone is worth celebrating, because it means that a LOT of people have seen a little bit of the cosmos through the Observatory’s Zeiss.

The official ribbon-cutting is Thursday, and that will feature a number of public speakers. For the Galactic Gala, we heard a series of short introductory speeches, followed by the projection of the star Epsilon Cygni (72 light-years away) into the “O” of Observatory on the front of the Art Deco Griffith Observatory. The light we saw that night had left the star 72 years ago, when Griffith first opened its doors.

Dr. Ed Krupp, Griffith Observatory director, basks in the light of the Milky Way stars splayed across the observatory’s front walls

Following the starlight ceremony the entire building was immediately bathed with an image of the Milky Way. It was a scientifically accurate and special light show entirely appropriate for the venue!

Most of the evening was taken up with dining, drinking, seeing the planetarium show, seeing a movie about the “re-making of Griffith” in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon theater (narrated by Leonard Nimoy, who donated the money for the theater), and visiting with other celebrants. Some of the more “luminary” attendees were the mayor of LA, many city council members, a congressman, at least one film star aside from Leonard Nimoy, as well as Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin. I think there were about 1,800 people there, taking in the sights and enjoying a sneak preview of a great building. It was great to hear what people said as they came out of the planetarium and the Leonard Nimoy theater, and as they moved through the exhibits. To hear people actually “get” what we were trying to do with all the attractions in the building was very gratifying.

Mark in front of one set of exhibits

Me in front of the same exhibit

For me the best part was seeing the exhibits I’ve worked on for a year and a half in real life. For so long they’ve been PDF files and Word documents. Now they’re real, and a tribute to the designers and curators and science support people who worked together to bring them about. Well, and to me, too, since I wrote them.

The overarching idea in the building is to turn visitors into observers, to show them the universe and let them explore for themselves. It’s an admirable goal, and now that Griffith is about to recommence its mission, I wish the staff (who comprise many close and cherished friends) the best of luck in the coming years. It’s been an honor to be part of it as the science writer who gave voice to all the things the observatory could tell visitors, if it could only talk.