Griffith Observatory
On a clear evening, you can stand on the terrace of Griffith Observatory and trace the grid of Los Angeles all the way to a thin line of Pacific on the horizon. The Hollywood Sign sits to your northwest; the city sprawls south in every direction. It's one of those rare vantage points where the scale of a place actually registers.
The building itself earns the trip on its own terms. Its copper-clad dome and Art Deco curves have been up here on Mount Hollywood since 1935, and since opening day more than nine million people have pressed an eye to the 12-inch Zeiss refracting telescope in the east dome — more than any other telescope on earth.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who come back tend to time it for a Tuesday or Wednesday evening, when the crowds thin and the roof terraces open up. The DASH bus from Vermont/Sunset is worth knowing about — it runs every 20-25 minutes and drops you right at the horseshoe driveway, sidestepping the parking situation entirely. Signal is patchy up here, so download what you need before you arrive.
Deals in Griffith Observatory
Book directly at the provider
How Griffith Observatory came to be
On December 12, 1912, a Welsh-born Los Angeles landowner named Griffith J. Griffith offered the city $100,000 to build a public observatory on Mount Hollywood. It took two decades for the project to take shape. Construction began in June 1933, with architects John C. Austin and Frederic M. Ashley working from preliminary sketches by Russell W. Porter and with input from astronomer George Ellery Hale. The observatory opened on May 14, 1935 — the country's third planetarium — and drew more than 13,000 visitors in its first five days.
In January 2002 it closed for a four-year, $93 million renovation funded largely by a public bond issue. The Art Deco exterior was preserved; the planetarium dome was replaced; and the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater was added below ground. It reopened in November 2006. Ed Krupp has served as director since 1974.
Who and what shaped it
People who shaped it
Landmark buildings
Plan your visit
On the map
When to go
Los Angeles runs mild year-round, but the elevation adds a noticeable chill after dark — bring a layer even in summer. Winter evenings can be genuinely cold, and marine fog sometimes rolls in and closes off the views; clear Santa Ana wind conditions in autumn and early winter often produce the sharpest sightlines to the Pacific.
Right now
Background & history adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) · specs from Wikidata (CC0) · weather from Open-Meteo · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · photos from Wikimedia Commons / Unsplash with per-image credit. No third-party reviews or social posts reproduced.