When the Sky Explained Everything

Dr. Edwin C. Krupp has spent more than 40 years researching how ancient cultures worshipped and studied the parade of celestial lights—the movement of the sun, moon, planets, and stars—to make sense of seasonal cycles on Earth. An “archaeoastronomer,” who studies the early history of astronomy, Krupp has written five books and visited more than 1,900 historic and prehistoric sites associated with the sky.

From the ancient Egyptians, who built monuments aligned with the annual rising of the bright star Sirius, to the New World’s Incas, who constructed temples positioned to track the sun, people have been guided by the heavens, telling stories about the sky that not only brought a sense of order to their lives but ultimately led to the development of modern astronomy, Krupp notes.

Since 1974, Krupp has been director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. In 2004, he oversaw the $93 million renovation of the iconic structure. Today, the 75-year-old observatory features two public telescopes, each mounted inside a copper-clad dome.

Despite the modern tools of astronomy, people still see portents in the sky. In 1982, the solar system’s planets grouped together loosely on one side of the sun, which some doomsday prognosticators claimed would trigger a catastrophic phenomenon known as the Jupiter Effect. Griffith Observatory took the lead in reassuring the public that the Jupiter Effect would not trigger a great California earthquake, as some soothsayers had predicted.

Always animated and ready from his Observatory office.