Star Sightings of a Different Kind

Since moving to Los Angeles just over a year ago, I can count on my hand the stars that I have seen thus far. Jemaine of Flight of the Conchords fame. Kiefer Sutherland. Dustin Hoffman. Oh. And the girl from the Office. However, last night put a whole new meaning to the term star sightings.

After a satisfying dinner of sushi and Yogurtland, Kathy, David and I headed up to the Griffith Park Observatory to their monthly 'Star Party.' At the Star Party, amateur astronomers bring and set up their telescopes for public use. Free. Out of their love for all things planets and stars. Knowing that the line for the Observatory's telescope is pretty long, I have never been up to the park at night. Waiting in line to maybe, possibly get a gander at the stars has not been high on my list. So this Star Party, with plenty of available scopes, was something that I have been wanting to check out since hearing about it.

There were a variety of scopes set up for use. Which kinds they were, I couldn't exactly tell you. But if questions arose, the owners of the telescopes, standing proudly next to their babies, would answer them for you. Through chatting with the owners, I learned that I was looking at the Moon, Jupiter and a cluster of 25,000 stars about a bazillion light years away....respectively. We even got a close up glimpse at one of the raging wildfires nearing the city lines of Los Angeles. In addition to the scopes that were set up was a man who was playing a theremin. He provided a perfect score to the ending of the evening with a montage of Star Trek melodies. Then we boldly went where no one went before........drumroll..........and drove home.

http://www.griffithobservatory.org/pstarparties.html