Griffith Observatory (天文台) is a national leader in public astronomy, and one of the most popular attractions in Los Angeles. It is located on the southern slope (山坡) of Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park at 1,134 feet above sea level.

Visitors may drive to the observatory and park in its parking lot or on nearby roads. No reservation (预订) is required to visit. Parking is limited, and the busiest time is weekends. Buses, taxis, and car pools are welcome. LADOT provides weekend public bus service from the Sunset/Vermont Metro Red Line Station.

Griffith Observatory is open six days a week. Admission and parking are free.

Hours of Operation

Tuesday－Friday               12 noon－10 pm

Saturday－Sunday            10 am－10 pm

Monday                            Closed

Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day Closed

Samuel Oschin Planetarium

The Samuel Oschin Planetarium theater offers 8 to 10 live, half­hour presentations each day. There are usually four different shows from which to choose.

Shows are presented every 60 to 90 minutes. Check the website, information desks, or the box office for each day’s show time. Being seated late is not permitted.

Samuel Oschin Planetarium tickets must be purchased at the observatory and are only available on the day of the show. The ticket prices for shows are：

Adults (13－59 years old)               $7.00

Children (5－12 years old)               $3.00

Seniors (60 years and older)          $5.00

Students                                        $5.00

Children under 5 years old will be admitted only to the first show each day.

Hearing assist devices are available on request.

Public Telescopes

Free public telescopes are available each evening; the observatory is open and skies are clear. The Zeiss telescope on the roof is generally open by 7 pm. All observing must be completed by 9:45 pm.

Today, an increasing number of people are always looking at their mobile phones with their heads down. These people are called the “Heads-down Tribe (低头族)”. Are you a heads-down tribe member? Heads-down tribe members now can be seen everywhere.

Using mobile phones may cause accidents and even cost a lot of money. Also, more and more interesting and strange facts happen to the “Heads-down Tribe”. Let’s have a look at an interesting TV report. A man in America kept using his mobile phone on his way home. As a result, he knocked into a big lost bear on the street. When he lifted his eyes from the phone, he was so scared that he turned around and ran away quickly as possible. Another fact is that we can often see people in the restaurant eating face to face but looking at their own mobile phones. It’s strange that they don’t talk to the ones who sit opposite to them during the meal. Some of them even have fun communicating with others on the phone.

Mobile phones are helpful and necessary tools for modern life. Are mobile phones good or bad? It depends on how people use them. Let’s be “healthy” users and try to be the “Heads-up Tribe”.

Since the days of Charles Darwin, the long necks of giraffes have been a textbook example of evolution. The theory goes that as giraffe ancestors competed for food, those with longer necks were able to reach higher leaves, getting a leg-up or neck-up over shorter animals.

But a very unusual prehistoric giraffe relative reveals that, in addition to finding food, fighting may have driven early neck evolution. In a study published Thursday in Science, a team of paleontologists described the Discokeryx(獬豸盘角鹿), a giraffe ancestor, as having a helmet-like head and large neck vertebrae(脊椎).The Discokeryx evolved like this to absorb and deliver skull-cracking collisions to seek mates and defeat competitors.

“It shows that giraffe evolution is not just lengthening the neck,” said Jin Meng,a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History and co-author of the new study.

Head-butting is an ancient and widespread form of conflict solution. Dinosaurs like Pachycephalosaurs have firm skulls(头骨), and knocking heads remain common in bighorn sheep, chameleons and even whales.

But the researchers suggested that the Discokeryx was uniquely expert at head-to-head fight. The team estimated that collisions between Discokeryxes were likely twice as forceful as head-butting muskoxen, which strike each other at nearly 25 mph.

The series of interlocking neck joints haven’t been discovered in any other vertebrate(脊椎动物),living or dead,giving the Discokeryx the greatest head-bashing equipment yet discovered, according to the researchers. “This animal is an extreme example of using head-butting as a fighting tool,” Meng said.