Springtime belongs to gorgeous flowers, and blooming trees, and buzzing insects, and soft sunbeams, and all of the gentler sights and bewitching scents you might find in a volume of poetry.<\/p>\n
But let us acknowledge, too, that the vernal equinox is very much a double act involving the sun and the moon, two faraway favorites that a certain earthbound icon has a firm and fascinating handle on.<\/p>\n
That’s Griffith Observatory, of course, a building that sits quite far from both our lunar bestie and nearest star, physically, but in spirit? Heading up the hill to the astronomy-centric spot is like paying a visit to those places in outer space we’ll never get to, or don’t expect to, anyway.<\/p>\n
The observatory, which recently marked its 90th anniversary, offers free programs at the start of each season, all to give visitors a chance to know more about when days and nights are of equal length \u2014 as they are when spring starts here in the Northern Hemisphere \u2014 and other equinox- and solstice-based facts.<\/p>\n
Even if you can’t check out one of the pay-nothing programs at the observatory, you can make time to visit, for free, on any day but Monday. Inside the celebrated Art Deco structure are all sorts of sun- and moon- and planet-based knowledge, including the wowza facts that broaden our understanding of the seasons.<\/p>\n
Yes, we said and we meant “wowza”: The processes of the seasons are wrapped up in eons-old rites occurring well beyond our earthly plane, something we should all be agog over, all the time.<\/p>\n
And if you need more opportunities to get agog, a free Public Star Party<\/a> will glimmer on the grounds of Griffith Observatory on the last Saturday in March.<\/p>\n Several astronomers and astronomy groups will be out on March 28 with telescopes in tow, so show with all of your universe-focused inquiries and a penchant for peering thousands of miles across vast galactic distances.<\/p>\n