TheSpaceWriter's Ramblings: Celebrating 8 Decades of Astronomy Outreach! Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Photo by Carolyn Collins Petersen. We went to Los Angeles last weekend to celebrate the 80th birthday of the venerable Griffith Observatory. It was 80 years ago today (May 14th), that the observatory opened its doors, and over the years it has served millions of people wonderful views of the sky from its telescope and under its planetarium dome. Griffith has a very special meaning for me. It’s one of my favorite astronomy places in the world, and I had the good fortune to work as the senior writer for the Griffith exhibits in 2005-2006. It was a very seminal period for me, and very productive. For a science writer, such a project is a rare opportunity to share astronomy with a wide and constantly changing audience. I was told while I was at Griffith last weekend that I ended up writing 25,000 words—essentially an astronomy book—spread across some 170 panels in the facility. I love those exhibits and if you get a chance to see them, I hope you do, too. (You can get a sneak preview of them here.) One very cool outcome of that project was ...