Bill Kay follows Bart Simpson to Griffith Observatory

It’s the one place that every LA native is familiar with, because they’ve all been taken there, Bart Simpson-like, on a school trip, tumbling out of the yellow bus and going ‘Wow!!’ as soon as they walk through the door: Griffith Observatory.
I’ve been up there before, but never got beyond the car park because it was the wrong time, wrong day or maybe wrong year. The place was closed for a long time while they spent $93m updating and expanding it – a six-year-old nerd was the first to point out that that was exactly a dollar for every mile from earth to the moon.
But when the Center for Inquiry, based at the Steve Allen Theater at the shabby end of Hollywood Boulevard, was organizing a trip to the Observatory, I jumped at the chance. The Theater is directly down the hill from the Observatory, only a ten-minute drive away. But it was so much easier to park by the Theater and pile into a coach, tickets already bought.
The most surprising point about the Observatory is how small it was before the upgrade: a Foucault’s Pendulum in the entrance hall, either side of which are halls devoted to telescopes and the moon respectively – and at the back the planetarium housed in the dome which is the Observatory’s signature. Even with the half-hour planetarium show, you’d do it comfortably in an hour – a bit more if the camera obscura is working. It’s a very poor relation of London’s Science Museum, redeemed only by the spectacular location overlooking LA, rightly used for umpteen films: James Dean even gets a bronze bust to mark the filming there of Rebel Without A Cause.
Happily, the upgrade has doubled the Observatory’s size, by excavating under the lawn leading to the entrance. In there is another theater, the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater (I ask you, what a name), currently showing a film on the history of the Observatory. But the big showpiece is a Big Picture of a slice of the universe, plus a close look at all the planets in our solar system. And a canteen. And a gift shop.
The new planetarium is worth the visit in itself. The seats are all recliners, much further than a flight economy seat goes back, and the latest version of the show is an excellent recounting of the history of astronomy, spoiled by a presenter who seems to think she is auditioning for the movies and has a patronizing voice that might go down well with fifth-graders (10-year-olds) but grates on adult ears – not just mine, the people in the row in front were clearly just as irritated. Every syllable is stressed and lovingly lingered over, many with a coquettish laugh to drive home whatever point she is trying to make. It’s a pity, because otherwise it’s a very well thought-out programme.
So the place is well worth a visit, but don’t block off more than half a day. Oh, and the first planetarium show of the day is only one that under-fours can attend.