Week 13: Griffith Observatory

My trip to the Griffith Observatory was a worthwhile experience. Although I did not learn any new material, I did enjoy my visit at the observatory. I had studied astronomy outside of class because of its great interest. My favorite part about the trip was the “Centered of the Universe” show. The show portrayed each event with great details highlighting every important scene. The Big Band Theory interest me the most because of its vast uncertainty. How did it start and why? Why did atoms suddenly come together at that time? Why not another time? There are so many questions to ask and nobody can truly give an answer. We just don’t know. The universe was formed around six billion years ago and is continuing to expand and galaxies are spreading further apart. Galaxies were form due to gravity, pulling particles together in a web-like structure, called dark matter. Astronomers explain that dark matter acts like a scaffold on the universe and that dark energy permeates all of space and increases the expansion rate. I find it strange that Astronomers can explains all of this in detail without being able to see dark matter or dark energy. But black holes cannot be seen, and yet scientists are able to claim its existence by studying the surrounding structure of the black holes. Maybe dark matter and energy do exist, but it is still in a hypothetical form.
During my visit at the observatory, I did not look through the telescope. It is something I will do when I receive the opportunity. I was never able to understand how telescope works. I understand that there are a series of mirrors in different shape and size, but how can one truly see a far distance? I know that light is captured and is redirected in many ways until it reaches the peep-hole, but it is out of my understanding to comprehend such a technology. The light that we see are old, so the current time of the object that we are looking at may not be in that same position or condition. Were looking at the past?
I understand that my paper does not describe my views or thoughts about the experience at the observatory, but a lot of my thoughts and questions did arise from the visit to the planetarium.
Another concept that I do not understand is why time decreases gravity is present. If I have two clocks that are set at the same time and I set them a great distance from each other, they should read the same time. I understand that time is older as one approaches the center of the universe, but the rate of time around gravity should not change. For example, a person that lives in California should have the same time as a person living in Florida, but the time may be read differently because of Earth’s rotation. Time itself is not changed, but can be read differently. So how do gravity increases the rate of time?
Other than theses thoughts, I did find it interesting how the planetarium had weight measures for each of the planet in our solar system. The pendulum at the main interest also intrigues me. I don’t understand how the movement of the Earth effects the circular motion of the pendulum.