Mayan Calendar Doomsday Prediction Inspires New Exhibit at Griffith Observatory

"It became apparent that what we really needed to do was a show about the real nature of time," Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory, told the Los Angeles Times.

That show is called "Time's Up," and it opens Thursday at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium Thursday.

According to the Times, visitors have asked about how the Mayan calendar's predictions of a 2012 doomsday would affect space and time for years.

"We leverage the Mayan 2012 calendar business as the propulsion for a deeper and really rather exotic exploration ..." Krupp said.

The show features a light pollution-free sky and a simulated destruction of Santa Monica.

It mixes Hollywood high-tech effects with live narration, as in other Observatory shows.

Read the full Times piece about the show here.