On Sunday, August 2nd, I decided to visit the observatory at Griffith Park. I've been to Griffith a dozen or so times before and after the renovation. Lately a friend and I have been using the site grounds as a place to practice photography. This visit was a little different because it started with a hike from a parking lot near the Greek Amphitheater. This let me avoid the impossible weekend parking situation while giving me an opportunity to see the observatory from a different perspective. The trail was well groomed in most places but I consider it poorly marked for the inexperienced hiker. I caught a couple of interesting vista points where one can see the observatory in the foreground and Downtown Los Angeles behind it. I plan on coming back one clear evening to setup a long exposure shot which should turn out well. Once I arrived at the zoo which is the front lawn, I spent some time walking the perimeter. I studied the brass rings set in concrete depicting the orbits and noticed for the first time that Pluto's orbit crosses that of Neptune - something I learned in my astronomy class! Something else I noticed were plates with lines headed towards the Hollywood Hills to the west indicating the location of the Solstice sun set. Inside the observatory, I spotted a couple of items mentioned in class. One of them was a prism setup where they split light into its component colors and the other was a display showing the different Electromagnetic wave types and what is "seen" when watching the skis with each type of telescope.
