Atop Mt. Hollywood, at 1,134 feet above the briny blue, Griffith Observatory is a high-point of public life of LA. The cost to any citizen or tourist, a mere $2.25 (Metro fare to Vermont/Sunset + .50c for the short DASH Observatory Shuttle; or park at the Greek Theatre and DASH up). It is a foolish Angel who doesn’t take Hawk Perspective from this spot from time to time. Especially when the day’s sunset looks to be fine, when the President is being impeached, or it’s the last day of the hottest September on Record.

“Griffith Observatory is a free-admission, public facility owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks in the middle of an urban metropolis of ten million people. The Observatory is one of the most popular informal education facilities in the United States and the most-visited public observatory in the world (with 1.5 million visitors a year). Griffith Observatory is a unique hybrid of public observatory, planetarium, and exhibition space. It was constructed with funds from the bequest of Griffith J. Griffith (who donated the land for Griffith Park in 1896), who specified the purpose, features, and location of the building in his 1919 will. Upon completion of construction in 1935, the Observatory was given to the City of Los Angeles with the provision that it be operated for the public with no admission charge. When it opened in 1935, it was one of the first institutions in the U.S. dedicated to public science and possessed the third planetarium in the U.S. 

Fulfilling the Observatory’s goal of “visitor as observer,” free public telescope viewing is available each evening skies are clear and the building is open. More people (8 million) have looked through the Observatory’s Zeiss 12-inch refracting telescope than through any other on Earth. More than 17 million have seen a live program in the Observatory’s Samuel Oschin Planetarium.”

— Griffith Observatory website