Griffith Observatory: Building Observatories In The World

Griffith Observatory Did you know that people have been building observatories since the 200s B.C.? An observatory, by definition, is a place or building equipped and used for making observations of astronomical, meteorological, or other natural phenomena, especially a place equipped with a powerful telescope for observing the planets and stars. Human beings have always been interested in the idea of discovering the unknown, and discovering space is no exception. But only through the last few hundreds of years have we really been able to make advances in astronomy due to large telescopes placed in the observatories. Some of the major observatories in the world are the Mauna Kea Observatory, the Arecibo Observatory, and the Yerkes Observatory. But arguably the most famous is the Griffith observatory in Los Angeles,

Some of the major exhibits would be a telescope that was free and open to the public to view the stars, a Hall of Science that would help Los Angeles learn more about the nature of the physical sciences, and a motion picture theater that would show educational and scientific films to the observatory visitors. Griffith had the idea of the public learning more about astronomy in depth, something few people throughout our history have had chances to do. The earliest known records of people studying astronomy date back to about 3500 B.C., starting with the Egyptians and Babylonians using a type of sundial called an obelisk. An obelisk was usually used to represent the gods of their society, but was also used to keep track of the time of day. Another ancient civilization that studied the skies was the Mayans. They built their own temples and observatories, and because of them, are considered to be one of the most advance ancient civilizations in terms of astronomy, due to the accuracy that their astronomical findings