Griffith Observatory — observatory
Image by igorelick from Pixabay

Griffith Observatory

  • Elevation346 m
  • 2 min read
  • 34.119° N 118.300° W

Interesting facts

  • The observatory's Tesla coil, built in 1910 by Earle Ovington, once threw sparks more than ten feet across Madison Square Garden at an estimated 1.3 million volts.
  • The coil was restored with the help of Kenneth Strickfaden, the Hollywood special-effects designer who worked on Frankenstein (1931).
  • "The Big Picture" was assembled from images taken over 11 nights by the 48-inch Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Mountain.
  • Nearby, a bronze Albert Einstein sits on a bench holding up a finger, showing how tiny a patch of sky The Big Picture actually covers.
  • In the scale model of the Solar System, the Sun is represented by the full width of the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater.
  • A 150-foot corridor tells the history of the universe from the Big Bang to today using hundreds of pieces of astronomy-themed jewellery.
  • When it opened in 1935 it was only the third planetarium in the United States, and more than 13,000 people came in its first five days.
  • Griffith insisted the observatory explain evolution, and a display called the Cosmochron did so from 1937 until the mid-1960s.
  • Rebel Without a Cause (1955) used the observatory in two scenes, making it a symbol of Los Angeles; a bust of James Dean now stands on the grounds.
  • The Astronomers Monument on the front lawn, a 1934 New Deal work by six local artists, honours six astronomers from Hipparchus to William Herschel.

Why it is worth it

Griffith Observatory sits on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood, its domes and terraces looking out over the endless grid of Los Angeles. From its terraces the view sweeps from Downtown to the south-east across Hollywood to the Pacific, and the Hollywood Sign is close enough to feel like a neighbour. It was the gift of Griffith J. Griffith, who donated the surrounding parkland to the city in 1896 and left money in his will for an observatory with the explicit aim of bringing astronomy to ordinary people rather than keeping it on remote mountaintops for scientists. Admission has been free since it opened on 14 May 1935, as he wished.

The building, by John C. Austin and Frederic M. Ashley after sketches by Russell W. Porter, mixes Greek and Beaux-Arts forms with Moderne touches and wears a Greek key pattern round its walls. Under the rotunda a Foucault pendulum swings to show the Earth turning, beneath ceiling murals by Hugo Ballin. The 12-inch Zeiss refractor in the east dome has been looked through by more than nine million people, which makes it the most-viewed telescope in the world; the west dome holds a triple-beam solar telescope that projects the Sun onto the hall below. During the Second World War the planetarium trained pilots in celestial navigation, and in the 1960s it helped prepare Apollo astronauts.

A major restoration and underground expansion was completed in 2006, keeping the historic exterior. Beneath the lawn the Gunther Depths of Space hall contains "The Big Picture", an image of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies 152 feet long, and scale models of the planets; a long corridor charts the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present, and a Zeiss Universarium projector, installed in 2006, fills the planetarium dome. Watching the city lights come on below from the terraces at dusk is one of the great free views of Los Angeles.

Getting there

The observatory is in Griffith Park, about 3 km from Hollywood. Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) is about 11 km away. Entry to the park and the observatory is free; there is paid parking close to the building.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in California 36The Most Beautiful Places in the United States 228The Greatest Modern Engineering Wonders in the United States 7The Most Remarkable Observatories 8The Greatest Engineering Wonders in the United States 26The Greatest Modern Engineering Wonders 26The Greatest Engineering Wonders 271

From the encyclopaedia

Griffith Observatory is an observatory in Los Angeles, California, on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park. It commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin including Downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. The observatory is a popular tourist attraction with a close view of the Hollywood Sign and an extensive array of space and science-related displays. Named after its benefactor, Griffith J. Griffith, admission has been free since the observatory's opening in 1935, in accordance with his will.

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34.11856, -118.30037per Wikidata