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, featuring Ryan Gosling is leading the box office, and if it has you thinking about the outer galaxies, L.A. has a number of places you can explore to learn more.“We have Jupiter that is really popular right now and its four Galilean moons, we’re starting to be able to see Venus.
But the big showstopper this time of year is probably still Orion’s nebula,” said Keith Armstrong,: From the Garvey Ranch Observatory in Monterey Park to a space museum in Downey, keep reading to check out our list of places to explore space around L.A.is leading the box office, and if it has you thinking about the outer galaxies, L.A. has a number of places you can explore to learn more.“We have Jupiter that is really popular right now and its four Galilean moons, we’re starting to be able to see Venus. But the big showstopper this time of year is probably still Orion’s Nebula,” Armstrong said.The observatory, where the Los Angeles Astronomical Society is based, is open to the public every Wednesday from 7:30 to 10 p.m. It has an 8-inch refractor telescope, but Armstrong says folks are welcome to bring their own devices and get help on viewing from a society member. The observatory, founded in 1904, is housed in the San Gabriel Mountains and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Ticketed tours are also available on the weekends and at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. during the spring and summer months. The center is a space museum owned by the city of Downey with interactive exhibits for people to learn about space shuttle operations. Admission is $5 a person . Home to the space shuttle Endeavor, the science center is free to the public and houses a number of hands-on exhibits, plus IMAX movies.The lab hosts a limited number of free in-person tours with advanced reservation. The next tour dates for June will be released on Monday, April 6, at 9 a.m..After several days of warm weather, Southern California is in for a cool down. Rain clouds are in the forecast that could bring a tenth of an inch of rainfall to the region this afternoon.Riverside and San Bernardino County mountains, including the Coachella Valley, are under a wind advisory. Strong winds will kick in around 8 p.m. when gusts could reach up to 50 mph in some areas. Wind advisory for Riverside, San Bernardino, Riverside County mountains and Coachella Valley goes in effect at 8 p.m.Cloudy skies are in the forecast all day as we anticipate some light rain this afternoon, about a tenth of an inch, that could carry into Wednesday morning. Temperatures at the beaches will reach the upper 60s to low 70s, and in the low to mid 70s for the valleys and inland areas. The National Weather Service has also issued a wind advisory for the San Bernardino and Riverside County mountains, including the Coachella Valley, where wind gusts could reach up to 50 mph.Mitski has described Nothing's About to Happen to Me as a concept album about a woman who hides away from society in unkempt solitude.This week, indie musician Mitski is playing a series of sold out shows at an unexpected L.A. venue: Hollywood High School’s auditorium. For the students, it’s an opportunity to see a beloved artist. For Hollywood High, it’s a continuation of a “world famous” arts legacy.Hollywood High School is one of just two U.S. stops for Mitski’s tour to support her new album, Nothing’s About to Happen to Me. “I wanted it to feel special,” Mitski told. “ I wanted it to feel like an experience I wanted to recreate even the feeling that I had going to shows, going to DIY shows, punk shows.”Hollywood High School opened in 1903 and many alumni went on to careers in the performing arts. They include:“It’s not just us watching a artist that we like so much,” said Angel Cueto, a senior who won tickets through a content for good attendance challenge. “But us also maybe getting a peak into our future.”This week, indie musician Mitski is playing a series of sold out shows at an unexpected L.A. venue: Hollywood High School’s auditorium. For the students, it’s an opportunity to see a beloved artist at “our freaking school.” For the school, it’s a continuation of a “world famous” arts legacy. “It makes me look at the school with so much pride,” said Lotus Rosby, a junior. “I'm like, ‘Wow, they have a huge artist coming to our school.’”Mitski has built a dedicated following since she self-released her first album in 2012. Senior Angel Cueto found the singer in middle school during “a very like, angsty teen part of my life." “There's so many times where I've just bawled my eyes out in the shower to her music, and she's always like the crying artist that I go to when I just want a good cry,” she said.“Mitski speaks to me,” James said. “I understand her, like she's me and I'm her.”“I didn't even have time to check the prices because every date was already sold out,” she said. James, who’s in the school’s theatre program, wondered if there’d be a chance for students to volunteer to work backstage.A 1920s era view of the Hollywood High School campus looking northwest from Highland Ave. The school opened in 1903 when the surrounding area was largely farmland.Then the school announced a contest. If students attended school every class period, every day for two weeks, they’d be entered into a raffle to win a pair of tickets donated by Mitski’s team.Michael Reagan, an attendance counselor at the school, said the 168 students who entered the contest had a 96% attendance rate compared to 89% for those who did not. “ It's definitely my most effective attendance challenge that I've done all year… probably in my three years in the district,” Reagan said. Hollywood High School's auditorium, pictured here in 1939, and the library were the only two surviving buildings after the the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake.“I think I've said I'm excited 25 million times and I don't think it's enough,” James said. For Cueto, who’s a senior, it’s another opportunity to reflect on the arts as a viable career path — not just as an artist, but all the roles it takes to put together a show. “It’s not just us watching a artist that we like so much,” Cueto said. “But us also maybe getting a peak into our future.”. “ I wanted it to feel like an experience, I wanted to recreate even the feeling that I had going to shows, going to DIY shows, punk shows.” There are more than a thousand wooden seats between Hollywood High School's first floor and mezzanine and a pipe organ embedded in the walls."”We rival some of the playhouses on Hollywood Boulevard," Dovlatian said.Cueto, a senior at the school, has a different take on the space. “It's like a, in my head, a janky auditorium that I spent like four years in," she said. "Sometimes it hurts my butt sitting in there for too long."Their names line the school's hallways in red stars. Actress Judy Garland also attended the school, but according to Dovlatian, skipped graduation to finish filmingDovlatian said even if students don’t go into the entertainment industry, they’ll take away valuable skills about working in teams and communicating. “You have to go beyond the textbook,” Dovlatian said. “Get hands-on learning, get them to struggle with the problem, the concept, the dance routine, the material, the equipment, and let them figure out for themselves what success means.” The historic library, which includes a mural of entertainment industry history, is one reason junior Dulce Duque chose to attend the school. “ I really like our old Hollywood vibes,” Dueque said.“ I wanna make stories and films that people can relate to and makes them feel seen,” Akorli said.Hollywood High’s arts programs are a few of the hundreds of specialized magnet programs available at LAUSD schools. Learn how to apply with LAist’sIf you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.NASA astronauts could be just days away from blasting off towards the moon for the first time since 1972. As soon as Wednesday, a four-person crew could launch on a mission to fly around the moon in an Orion capsule that's currently perched at the top of a 322-foot, orange-and-white rocket waiting at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.The crew's first launch opportunity will come on April 1, at 6:24 p.m EDT. Mission managers have several more launch opportunities through April 6. If their trip goes as planned, it will be the first time that a woman, a person of color, and a non-American will venture out around the moon. During a briefing, mission managers said that launch preparations were going smoothly and they were not dealing with any technical issues that might threaten a Wednesday attempt.This will be the first launch in NASA's Artemis moon program that includes a crew. Astronauts will first orbit Earth so that they can check out key systems on their spacecraft, including life support, communication, and navigation. If everything goes as planned, they'll send themselves on a looping figure-eight path around the moon and back. It will take several days to get out to the moon, and the entire mission is expected to last about ten days. If their trip goes as planned, it will be the first time that a woman, a person of color, and a non-American will venture out around the moon.NASA astronauts could be just days away from blasting off towards the moon for the first time since 1972, when Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan took his last steps in the gray lunar dust. As soon as Wednesday, a four-person crew could launch on a mission to fly around the moon in an Orion capsule that's currently perched at the top of a 322-foot, orange-and-white rocket waiting at Kennedy Space Center in Florida., the NASA mission's commander, during a briefing with reporters on Sunday. He said that it was"surreal" to drive out to the launch pad and see this massive rocket. The crew's first launch opportunity will come on April 1, at 6:24 p.m EDT. Mission managers have several more launch opportunities through April 6.If their trip goes as planned, it will be the first time that a woman, a person of color, and a non-American will venture out around the moon.During a briefing, mission managers said that launch preparations were going smoothly and they were not dealing with any technical issues that might threaten a Wednesday attempt.This will be the first launch in NASA's Artemis moon program that includes a crew. Over three years ago, during the Artemis I test flight in November and December of 2022, NASA put an Orion capsule through its paces without astronauts on board. That capsule went on a looping trip around the moon that lasted over three weeks and covered over a million miles before splashing back down in the Pacific. This time around, the astronauts will first orbit Earth so that they can check out key systems on their spacecraft, including life support, communication, and navigation. If everything goes as planned, they'll fire their vehicle's propulsion system to send themselves on a looping figure-eight path around the moon and back, a deep space journey that will take them more than 230,000 miles away from Earth. It will take several days to get out to the moon, and the entire mission is expected to last about ten days. The closest they'll come to the moon is about 4,000 to 6,000 miles above the lunar surface, as they swing behind the moon and briefly lose contact with mission controllers. At that distance, according to NASA, the moon will appear to be about the size of a basketball held at arm's length, with the distant blue Earth beyond it.This mission is a key step towards an eventual moon landing that will support NASA's goal of establishing a permanent lunar presence, including a moon base, with the help of international partners. But work on critical hardware — most importantly, the landing vehicle — remains incomplete, although NASA has been pushing to speed up its two lunar lander contractors, SpaceX and Blue Origin. NASA officials now plan to test out one or both landers in Earth's orbit before trying to press on with a lunar landing attempt. To do so, they added a lander checkout mission next year to the Artemis program's lineup of launches.But long-time NASA veteran Wayne Hale, who spent decades as a flight controller and space shuttle program manager before his retirement, thinks that timeline is going to be challenging. "I kind of worry about whether it will be before 2030 or not, but hopefully not long after that," says Hale. He says NASA's new roadmap for the moon, unveiled last week at the agency's headquarters, is ambitious, involving multiple robotic missions, a lunar base, and power station development. "All of these are good but, to use a cliche — show me the money," Hale noted, adding that he hopes Congress will provide the necessary funds, but he's skeptical. NASA's return to the moon has essentially been in the works since 2004, when President George W. Bush gave a speech announcing that NASA would finish building the international space station, retire its fleet of aging space shuttles, and make its new focus the moon, as a stepping stone to Mars. "It's really the same program, with a little tweaking along the way, that we are trying to execute 22 years later," notes John Logsdon, a space policy historian and professor emeritus at George Washington University."It's taken forever." In the 1960s the space race with the Soviet Union seemed existential, says Logsdon, and this generated an urgency that just doesn't exist for the current moon program."This is just something that seems the logical next thing to do, but not with any great commitment to getting it done on any kind of reasonable schedule," says Logsdon. China is also seeking to put people on the moon, and some lawmakers in Congress and officials at NASA have tried to use that as a new space race that could inspire more funding and support. Most people alive today have no memory of being able to look up at the moon and know that astronauts are there. Recent surveys suggest wide support among Americans for NASA's return to the moon, says Teasel Muir-Harmony, curator for the Apollo collection at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. "The Artemis program is actually more popular than the Apollo program was," says Muir-Harmony."In general, the polls suggest that today, Americans are more supportive of the program than they were in the 1960s."California's diminished fossil-fuel sector has made it especially vulnerable to the oil shock of the Israeli-U.S. war with Iran — and to interventions from the Trump administration that could delay or even reverse California’s trend toward renewable energy. As other economies clamp down on fuel exports, it’s possible the state could face even higher crude prices or a shortage of gasoline.California is home to some of the world’s most aggressive climate policies, including a tax on carbon emissions and a strict requirement to adopt clean-burning fuels such as “renewable diesel” made from fats and oils. Over the last 20 years, California’s production of crude oil has fallen by around half, and many oil wells have shut down. The state now imports almost two-thirds of its crude oil from tanker ships, which is cheaper and more practical because it is separated by steep mountains from oil-producing zones such as Texas.Two weeks after the war in Iran began, the Department of Energy moved to restart a long-defunct California offshore oil pipeline owned by the company Sable Offshore. The order from Energy Secretary Chris Wright cited “California’s reliance on foreign oil vulnerable to geopolitical disruption,” with “a significant share traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.” The pipeline has been shut down since a 2015 oil spill that killed hundreds of animals, and state officials had not given it clearance to reopen. The addition of new supply from Sable could lower costs for refineries but beyond Sable there aren’t many good options for increasing crude supplies in the short term.California has managed a remarkable feat over the past 20 years. Even as its economy has grown to overtake Germany’s as thehas fallen by around two-thirds. This has happened due to some of the world’s most aggressive climate policies, including a tax on carbon emissions and a strict requirement to adopt clean-burning fuels such as “ During the same period, California’s production of crude oil has also fallen by around half, and many oil wells have shut down. The state nowof its crude oil from tanker ships, which is cheaper and more practical because it is separated by steep mountains from oil-producing zones such as Texas. Some of the state’s largest gasoline and diesel refineries are also shutting down amid declining demand, which will make the state dependent on imports of refined gasoline, too. The state’s diminished fossil-fuel sector has made it especially vulnerable to the oil shock of the Israeli-U.S. war with Iran — and to interventions from the Trump administration that could delay or even reverse California’s trend toward renewable energy. Gas prices in the state havein recent weeks, the highest prices in the country. As other economies clamp down on fuel exports, it’s possible the state could face even higher crude prices or a shortage of gasoline.arguing that the federal government can use the Defense Production Act to preempt state law in the event of energy emergencies. The Department of Energy then moved to restart a long-defunct California offshore oil pipeline owned by the company Sable Offshore. The order from Energy Secretary Chris Wright cited “California’s reliance on foreign oil vulnerable to geopolitical disruption,” with “a significant share traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.” The pipelinesince a 2015 oil spill that killed hundreds of animals, and state officials had not given it clearance to reopen. On the very next day, the pipeline reopened. California For now, the Sable pipeline is ramping up to process around 50,000 barrels a day, which would provide around 3 percent of the state’s daily oil needs. Chevron has already said it will buy and refinefrom the pipeline starting in April. The addition of new supply from Sable could lower costs for refineries, said Mike Umbro, an energy entrepreneur who runs Californians for Energy and Science, an educational nonprofit that advocates for increased oil production. Beyond Sable, though, there aren’t many good options for increasing crude supplies in the short term. “Sacramento’s saying, ‘You don’t have a long-term future here,’ so the companies aren’t going to dump a bunch of money in to increase production,” Umbro said.from another offshore oil company to frack undersea oil wells in order to increase production. The administration has also heldthat would limit drilling near homes and schools, both measures that would open up more onshore oil production in the state. But more upstream oil production won’t help resolve the current fuel crunch. Even as some oil producers consider pumping more crude, no one has suggested building more refineries. In fact, Chevron and other large refinery owners have warned that California’s “cap-and-invest” program — a carbon tax that gets more expensive as time goes on — could soon drive them out of the state. The California Air Resources Board, the state’s climate regulator, is supposed to debut new rules for the carbon tax later this year, which would reduce the amount of free emissions refineries would be allowed to emit and make refineries less likely to stay in California. The oil industry’s argument against these regulations follows the same logic as the Trump administration’s. “Continued erosion of California’s refining capacity risks increased reliance on imported fuels that are slower to arrive, more exposed to global supply disruptions, and less reliable during emergencies or periods of heightened geopolitical risk,” Andy Walz, a senior executive at Chevron, wrote in a letter to state leaders. At the CERAWeek energy conference this week in Texas, Walz said he believes the state could soon have a shortage of gasoline and jet fuel, and that Chevron might close its own refineries within a decade. Those refineries account for 30% of capacity, and losing them could cause huge supply shortages for Bay Area drivers, Central Valley farmers, and Democrats and environmental groups in the state, meanwhile, say that the refiners may be crying wolf about the state’s carbon tax. They see the Iran crisis as more evidence that the state should lean harder into its transition away from oil. Indeed, as Katelyn Roedner Sutter, the California state director for the Environmental Defense Fund, sees it, the current gas spike may only speed up the state’s energy transition by making electric vehicles even more attractive. Governor Gavin Newsom’s latest budget proposed a subsidy for first-time EV buyers, designed to replace the repealed Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, and she said the Iran crisis could strengthen the governor’s case. “I do think the war actually makes it even more important to move forward with this, because I think it just underscores how vulnerable we are, being so dependent on fossil fuels,” she said. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at
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