Griffith Observatory

Griffith Observatory Is Free to Enter Because Its Donor Specified That It Must Be

Griffith J. Griffith, a Welsh-born mining magnate who donated the park and observatory land to Los Angeles, specified as a condition of his gift that admission to the building remain free to the public. That was in 1919. The building opened in 1935 and ninety years later the main building is still free to enter. The parking, the planetarium shows, and the gift shop cost money. The views from the terrace do not.

The views are the first reason most people come. From the east terrace on a clear day, you look south over the Los Angeles basin toward downtown with the Santa Monica and San Bernardino mountains in the background. Turn left and the Hollywood Sign is readable from the observatory at roughly the same elevation. At dusk, when the city lights come on and the sky grades from orange through purple, it is one of the better views of any western American city, and it is free to stand there.

Inside the Observatory

The building is a 1935 Art Deco structure with three copper domes and the institutional confidence of WPA-era public architecture. A major underground expansion completed in 2006 added the Wilensky Solar System Shaft – a scale model of the solar system in a 150-foot vertical shaft – along with new galleries below the original building.

The Foucault Pendulum in the main rotunda is the object most visitors stand around longest. A 240-pound brass sphere hangs from a 40-foot cable and swings slowly, knocking down pegs in a circle as the Earth rotates beneath it. The pendulum always swings in the same direction while the floor turns underneath it – which reads as the pendulum slowly rotating. It is a direct, physical demonstration of the Earth’s rotation and one of the more elegant pieces of public science education in any city.

The rooftop Zeiss telescope is open for free public viewing on clear evenings from dusk until 9:45pm. The 1935 12-inch refractor is elderly by research standards but adequate for planetary viewing; on a good evening you can see Saturn’s rings. The weekend summer queue runs 30 to 45 minutes and moves steadily.

Planetarium Shows

The Samuel Oschin Planetarium seats 300 and runs paid shows throughout the day at around USD 7 to 10 per person. Book online; weekends sell out.

Getting There

Griffith Park is large and the observatory is not near the park entrance. By car, take Vermont Avenue north from Los Feliz Boulevard; parking lots near the observatory fill early on clear evenings and weekend afternoons. Arrive before 14:00 on weekends or accept a substantial walk from lower lots. The DASH Observatory bus (USD 0.50) runs from the Red Line Vermont/Sunset and Vermont/Santa Monica metro stations. The hike up from Los Feliz takes 30 to 45 minutes through the park and is popular in the early morning.

The observatory appears in Rebel Without a Cause, La La Land, and dozens of other films, which has given most Angelenos a genuine affection for it that occasionally translates into actually going there – a distinction worth noting among tourist landmarks.