The scope is available for hire ($5000 for the whole night). With the greater LA area having 3/4 of the population of Australia and the associated smog from the same number of vehicles
the LA skies are atrocious even up in the San Gabriel mountains at nearly 1800m, although we were well above the smog inversion layer up there at least... but 2.5m of aperture
can cut through to some degree. The biggest restriction is the FOV, which is very small at around 6 or 7 arc min, so while it excelled at Planetary Nebulae, double stars and globular cluster cores and showing colour in these things!
, looking at only the core of M51 et al was a little disappointing due to lack of FOV and contrast. They had several Televue eyepieces.
The real magic was the whole experience, being in that dome and the whole building, which is full of 100 years of nostalgia with lots of original equipment, power boards, spectroscopes, grinding tools for the 100" and testing equipment etc stored on the lower floor...the feeling of standing on the shoulders of giants was palpable
even Hubbles chair is still on the movable dome viewing platform.
Mike