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Griffith Observatory is located in Los Angeles, California, United States Sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in LA's 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 that features an extensive array of space- and science-related displays

History

The land on which the observatory stands was donated to the City of Los Angeles by Col Griffith J Griffith in 1896 In his will, Griffith donated funds to build an observatory, exhibit hall, and planetarium on the donated land Construction began on June 20, 1933 using a design developed by architect John C Austin based on preliminary sketches by Russell W Porter The observatory and accompanying exhibits were opened to the public on May 14, 1935

Exhibits

The first exhibit visitors encountered in 1935 was the Foucault pendulum, which was designed to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth The exhibits also included a twelve-inch Zeiss telescope, a solar telescope, and a thirty-eight foot relief model of the moon's north polar region

Col Griffith requested that the observatory include a display on evolution which was accomplished with the Cosmochron exhibit which included a narration from Caltech Professor Chester Stock and an accompanying slide show The evolution exhibit existed from 1937 to the mid 1960s

Also included in the original design was a planetarium The first shows covered topics including the Moon, worlds of the solar system, and eclipses

Mad Systems, the Orange, California based audio-visual consultancy and integration company, developed all the audio-visual equipment for the over 60 exhibits as well as the telluria and the magic boxes

During World War II the planetarium was used to train pilots in celestial navigation The planetarium was again used for this purpose in the 1960s to train Apollo program astronauts for the first lunar missions

The planetarium theater was renovated in 1964 and a Mark IV Zeiss projector was installed

Renovation and expansion

The observatory closed in 2002 for renovation and a major expansion of exhibit space It reopened to the public on November 3, 2006 The $93 million renovation, paid largely by a public bond issue, restored the building, as well as replaced the aging planetarium dome The building was expanded underground, with completely new exhibits, a café, gift shop, and the new Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater

Since the observatory opened in 1935, admission has been free, in accordance with Griffith's will Admission to the museum continues to be free However, to accommodate crowds expected in the wake of its reopening, the observatory has implemented a reservations-only system, which allows visitors to make timed-entry reservations online or by telephone Visitors will not be able to park at the observatory for the first few months to a year after the reopening Instead, they must ride shuttles that depart from Hollywood and Highland in Hollywood (which has an additional parking fee) or from the Griffith Observatory Satellite Reservations Center adjacent to the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park, or hike or bicycle to the observatory

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