Keep the Stars Shining for All of Los Angeles
The sky belongs to everyone. The Samuel Oschin Planetarium makes that possible.
Griffith Observatory Foundation’s summer campaign aims to raise $50,000 to support this trusted public resource. Will you help us get there? Every donation—no matter the size—makes an impact.
Why the Samuel Oschin Planetarium Matters
This summer, Griffith Observatory Foundation is dedicating its fundraising efforts to the heart of Griffith Observatory: the Samuel Oschin Planetarium.
The Samuel Oschin Planetarium seats 290 people beneath a 75-foot dome—one of the largest in the country—and has presented live shows daily since the Observatory opened in 1935.
This year, it celebrates its 20th anniversary since reopening following the Observatory’s major renovations.
Griffith Observatory has always welcomed visitors free of charge, and the Samuel Oschin Planetarium has remained an accessible, ticketed experience. Sustaining this legacy and safeguarding it for the future is made possible by donations from members of our community.
Our goal is to raise $50,000 to support the people and programs that make the Samuel Oschin Planetarium a trusted educational and inspirational resource for visitors of all ages and backgrounds.
Did you know that nearly 30,000 schoolchildren visit the Samuel Oschin Planetarium each school year thanks to gifts like yours? A gift of just $10 underwrites free admission for one student or teacher participating in Griffith Observatory’s School Programs.
Make Your Impact Today
Griffith Observatory Foundation is Griffith Observatory’s nonprofit partner. For almost 50 years, it has supported the Observatory’s mission to serve the public through fundraising and community partnerships.
In addition to helping to sustain the Samuel Oschin Planetarium, the generosity of Foundation members and donors supports the Observatory’s free fifth-grade School Programs and ensures that future generations can continue to observe, ponder, and understand the sky.
To make a 100% tax-deductible gift online, visit obs.la/donate.
If you have any questions, we’re happy to help. Please contact Yoseline Gutierrez, Development Manager, at ygutierrez@griffithobservatoryfoundation.org.
If you’ve already donated to this campaign, thank you for your generosity.
Experience the Samuel Oschin Planetarium
Up to ten times a day and six days a week, nearly 300 people share in something that cannot be replicated anywhere else on Earth.
They see the night sky presented live by a trained storyteller in an expertly designed and visually stunning astronomical program.
The room is extraordinary, and it’s not just the astronomical immersion, the theatrical visualization, the cutting-edge technology, or the cosmic scale. It is the human experience at the center of it all.
Behind every show is a team of 13 live presenters, eight theater technicians, and technical and educational staff who create a connection that no recording can replicate.
When full-dome digital animation became widely available in the early 2000s, most planetaria eliminated the live presenter in favor of pre-recorded programming. Griffith Observatory did not.
The Observatory believes in the power of people telling the story of the stars to other people. That commitment ensures that a child today feels the same awe every audience has felt over the last nine decades.
Learn more about the daily programs the Samuel Oschin Planetarium has to offer.
What Makes Every Show Extraordinary
Since Griffith Observatory opened in 1935, its Zeiss star projector has wowed audiences with its ability to reproduce the night sky. The theater itself was designed with a clean, unobstructed horizon to maximize that illusion.
The original Mark II projector was replaced by the Mark IV in 1964. That same decade, Apollo astronauts trained in this room to recognize stars for backup navigation.
The current Zeiss Universarium Mark IX was developed through a close collaboration between Griffith Observatory’s scientific team and Zeiss engineers, achieving a level of astronomical accuracy that Zeiss has incorporated into every projector built since.
The tradition of gathering and telling stories to make sense of the night sky goes back thousands of years. Today, each of Griffith Observatory’s 13 live presenters completes a rigorous selection process followed by six months of training—including theatrical direction—before taking the stage beneath the dome.
Griffith Observatory may be the only institution in the world to combine a Zeiss star projector, a full-dome digital projection system, and live presenters in every public planetarium show.
Under a remote, pristine, and luminous sky, audiences travel to places and times at the meeting point of science and imagination.
“From Griffith Observatory’s original conception and through its entire history, it has not been about astronomy but about astronomy and people.”
— Dr. E.C. Krupp, Director of Griffith Observatory
