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 12-inch (305mm)
Zeiss refracting telescope in the east dome, a triple-beam
coelostat (solar telescope) in the west dome, and a thirty-eight foot relief model of the moon's north polar region. 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 under the large central dome. The first shows covered topics including the Moon, worlds of the
Solar System, and eclipses. The planetarium theater was renovated in 1964 and a Mark IV
Zeiss projector was installed. The Café at the End of the Universe, an homage to
Restaurant at the End of the Universe, is one of many cafés run by
celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. One wall inside the building is covered with the largest astronomically accurate image ever constructed ( long by high), called "The Big Picture", depicting the
Virgo Cluster of galaxies; visitors can explore the highly detailed image from within arm's reach or through telescopes away. The former planetarium projector is part of the underground exhibit on ways in which humanity has visualized the skies.
Centered in the Universe features a high-resolution immersive video projected by an innovative laser system developed by
Evans and Sutherland Corporation, along with a short night sky simulation projected by the Zeiss Universarium. A team of animators, directed by observatory art director
Don Dixon who also co-wrote the script, worked more than two years to create the 30-minute program. Actors, holding a glowing orb, perform the presentation, under the direction of Chris Shelton. Tickets for the show are purchased separately at the box office within the observatory. Tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Children under 5 are free, but are admitted to only the first planetarium show of the day. Only members of the observatory's support group, Friends of the Observatory, may reserve tickets for the planetarium show. The observatory is split up into six sections: The Wilder Hall of the Eye, the Ahmanson Hall of the Sky, the W. M. Keck Foundation Central Rotunda, the Cosmic Connection, the Gunther Depths of Space Hall, and the Edge of Space Mezzanine. The Wilder Hall of the Eye, located in the east wing of the main level focuses on astronomical tools like telescopes and how they evolved over time so people can see further into space. Interactive features there include a Tesla coil and a "Camera Obscura", which uses mirrors and lenses to focus light onto a flat surface. The Ahmanson Hall of the Sky, located in the west wing, focuses on objects that are normally found in the sky, like the Sun and Moon. The main centerpiece of this section is a large solar telescope projecting images of the Sun, using a series of mirrors called coelostats. Exhibits here include a periodic table of the elements, a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, and several alcoves showing exhibits about topics like day and night, the paths of the Sun and stars, the seasons, the phases of the Moon, tides, and eclipses. The W. M. Keck Foundation Central Rotunda features several
Hugo Ballin murals on the ceiling and upper walls restored since 1934, a Foucault pendulum that demonstrates the Earth's rotation, and a small exhibit dedicated to Griffith J. Griffith, after whom the observatory is named. The Cosmic Connection is a 150 ft long hallway connecting the main building and the underground exhibition areas (see below) that depicts the history of the universe, and dramatizes the amount of time that has passed from the Big Bang to the present day, using hundreds of individual pieces of astronomy-related jewelry. The Gunther Depths of Space Hall is the lower level of the observatory, dominated by "The Big Picture," and
scale models of the Solar System. The planets (including dwarf planet Pluto) are shown relative to the size of the Sun, which is represented by the diameter of the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater. Below each planet are listed facts, as well as scales indicating a person's weight on planets having a solid surface (or weight at an altitude where
atmospheric pressure would equal one
bar otherwise). In addition, beneath the Earth's model, there is a small room containing a large model Earth globe, an older Zeiss planetarium projector, and a set of seismograph rolls, including one tracking room motion caused by occupants. The other rolls are attached to seismographs monitoring movement at the bedrock level, and indicate actual seismic activity. On the north wall of the Depths of Space is "The Big Picture", a by photograph (the largest astronomical image in the world) showing a portion of the
Virgo Cluster of galaxies at an angular scale of 0.1 degree per foot. This image was taken over the course of 11 nights by the 48-inch
Samuel Oschin telescope at
Palomar Mountain. There is also a bronze statue of
Albert Einstein sitting on a bench in the Depths of Space. Einstein is holding his index finger about in front of his eyes, to illustrate the visual area of space that is captured in The Big Picture. The Edge of Space Mezzanine, which overlooks the Depths of Space Hall, focuses more on astronomy related topics that involve celestial bodies much closer to Earth, with exhibits including meteorite displays, an asteroid impact simulator, cloud and spark chambers, a large globe of the Moon, and telescopes that allow inspection of The Big Picture from a distance.
Tesla coil at the Observatory On display at the Observatory is a large
Tesla coil, named for its inventor,
Nikola Tesla. Dubbed "GPO-1", it is one of a pair which were built in 1910 by
Earle Ovington. Ovington, who would go on to fame as an aviator, ran a company which built high voltage generators for medical
X-ray and
electrotherapy devices. In public demonstrations of his generators, the spectacular displays drew crowds. Ovington designed the Observatory's coil to surpass a coil made by
Elihu Thomson in 1893 which generated a 64-inch spark. (
Tesla had secretly produced much larger sparks in 1899.) The project caught the attention of an
Edison Electric Illuminating Company official, who offered $1,000 if the coil were displayed at an upcoming electrical show in
Madison Square Garden, with the stipulation that the machine would produce sparks not less than ten feet long. The machine, dubbed the
Million Volt Oscillator, was installed in the band balcony overlooking the arena. At the top of each hour the lights in the main hall were shut off, and sparks would shoot from the copper ball atop the coil to a matching coil 122 inches away, or to a wand held by an assistant. The chief engineer of the
General Electric Company estimated that the discharges were at least 1.3 million volts. Ovington, who died in 1936, gave the matching Tesla coils to his old electrotherapy colleague Frederick Finch Strong, who in 1937 donated them to Griffith Observatory. The Observatory had room to exhibit only one of the pair. By this time the machine was missing parts, so Observatory staffer Leon Hall restored it with the notable assistance of Hollywood special effects expert
Kenneth Strickfaden who designed the special effects for
Frankenstein (1931) among many other movies.
Astronomers Monument '', located to the Observatory's north The
Astronomers Monument on the front lawn of the Observatory that pays homage to six of the greatest astronomers of all time:
Hipparchus (c. 190 – c. 120 BC);
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543);
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642);
Johannes Kepler (1571–1630);
Isaac Newton (1642–1727); and
William Herschel (1738–1822). The 1934
New Deal artwork, which was a collaboration between six local artists, is topped with an
armillary sphere. ==Visiting==