OTHERWORLDLY FANS GET CLOSER LOOK AT RED PLANET.Byline: Ryan Oliver Staff Writer GRIFFITH PARK Griffith Park is a large public park at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains. It is situated in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The park covers 4,210 acres (17 km²) of land, making it one of the largest urban parks in North America. - Stargazers stayed up through the night and into this morning at Griffith Park as the Red Planet made its closest appearance to Earth in about 60,000 years. The historic event, that reached its peak at 2:51 this morning, was marked with a unique viewing celebration on the lawn outside the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, near the Los Angeles Zoo The Los Angeles Zoo founded in 1966, is a large zoo located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Zoo, located in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, is home to 1,200 animals from around the world. . ``It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience,'' said Chris Noviello of West Hollywood West Hollywood A community of southern California northeast of Beverly Hills. It is mainly residential. Population: 36,600. . ``You grow up looking at Mars in your school books, and then you're able to see it in person. It's pretty impressive.'' Separated from Earth by a mere 34.6 million miles, observers with simple amateur telescopes and clear skies Clear Skies could refer to:
Astronomers said the planet at times can be as far away as 65 million miles, and that it will not orbit this close to the Earth again until 2287. Griffith Park Observatory staff threw the viewing party for the public near its satellite facility at the Autry Museum because the main facility has been shut down for renovations. Amateur astronomy Amateur astronomy, a subset of astronomy, is a hobby whose participants enjoy studying celestial objects. It is usually associated with viewing the night sky when most celestial objects and events are visible, but sometimes amateur astronomers also operate during the day for events enthusiasts set up several dozen of their own telescopes for people to view the planet. ``It's just amazing,'' said Heidi Nikpour of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . ``It was a very clear image,'' she said after looking into an 11-inch refractor refractor: see telescope. telescope mounted on top of a Volvo station wagon. The telescope's owner, Jeff Schroeder Jeffrey George Schroeder (born February 4, 1974 in Silverlake, California) is an American rock musician, who became a guitarist with the Grammy-award winning alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins in 2007. He is on leave from his Ph.D. program in Comparative Literature at UCLA. , said his hand-built instrument was one of the most powerful privately-owned telescopes in the country. There were long lines of people waiting for hours to get a view from any one of the telescopes at Griffith Park. ``I was surprised at how much interest there is in astronomy out there,'' said Bob Hughart of Glendale, who waited about 40 minutes to look through the telescope on the Volvo. ``It looked like an orange ball about the size of a penny,'' Hughart said. Astronomers said the Earth and Mars are extraordinarily close because of subtle changes to Mars' orbit over the years, which is becoming more eliptical. The last time people could see Mars so near was in 57,617 B.C. Ryan Oliver, (818) 713-3669 ryan.oliver(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo, drawing, box Photo: Jeff Schroeder aims his Volvo-mounted telescope so fellow astronomy fans will be able to catch a closer look at Mars on Tuesday night at Griffith Park. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News Drawing/Box: CELESTIAL ENCOUNTER SOURCES: Sky & Telescope Warren Huskey/Staff Artist |
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