For a century, the Los Angeles Astronomical Society has given Angelenos a reason to look up.
On Saturday, that tradition played out on the lawn of Griffith Observatory, where 100 telescopes, some sleek and modern, others handmade or unusual by design, pointed skyward as the club marked a milestone few amateur clubs reach: 100 years.
Founded in 1926 by a group of 30 local amateur telescope makers, the society has grown into a roughly 1,200-member organization and one of the oldest clubs of its kind in the country. Its centennial celebration, billed as “100 Telescopes for 100 Years,” was both a tribute to its origin and a reminder of Los Angeles’ often overlooked place in the history of astronomy.
“We’re still grinding mirrors with grit and doing it with our hands and building telescopes from scratch,” said Keith Armstrong, president of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society. “That’s how the club began, and we’re honoring that tradition still.”
The society began at a time when amateur astronomers often could not simply buy telescopes off a shelf. If someone wanted one, Armstrong said, they had to learn how to make it.
Over time, as mass-produced telescopes became more widely available, the club’s role shifted from helping members build instruments to helping people understand how to use them – and where to point them.
That outreach role has become central to the club’s identity. Members host star parties, give talks, visit schools and help Angelenos look through telescopes in a city better known for light pollution than dark skies.
“We are not going to show anyone the best sky they’re ever going to see,” Armstrong said. “But we have more people that are interested potentially in astronomy than almost any place in the world.”
That mission was on display on Saturday.
The centennial celebration drew roughly 60 to 70 club members and hundreds of attendees from the public, Armstrong said. Despite the light rain, many members brought their own telescopes — some built by hand decades ago — and invited visitors to look through them and learn about the sky. One telescope was mounted atop the roof of a Volvo station wagon; another resembled an oil rig.
The night also brought a few surprises. Armstrong briefly spoke with Mayor Karen Bass over FaceTime, something that “wasn’t on my bingo card,” he said.
More than anything, he said, the evening felt like a celebration of the club itself.
“There was just a lot of love. Everybody was there for each other,” Armstrong said. “There were members that don’t usually show up for star parties that came.”
The club’s longevity, members said, is closely tied to Los Angeles itself. The region is home to the Griffith Observatory, Mount Wilson Observatory, California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a long aerospace history. Edwin Hubble’s discoveries at Mount Wilson helped transform humanity’s understanding of the universe, and the society has long drawn members connected to science, engineering, optics and space research.
But it has also attracted people far outside those fields. Armstrong, who works in music, said he joined during the pandemic after his father bought him a telescope when he was in his 40s. He needed help learning how to use it, Armstrong said, and the club gave him not only technical guidance, but a community.
“There’s no gatekeeping,” Armstrong said. “If you’re even a little bit astro-curious, come on in and you’re going to learn a lot.”
For Lewis Chilton, the club’s longtime historian, the anniversary is personal. Nearly 83, Chilton has been involved with the society since 1960 and has served as a historian since 1968. He said some of his lifelong friendships began through the club.
“I never dreamed that I’d live long enough to see the 100th birthday,” he said. “Really didn’t.”
Chilton’s role as a historian began almost by accident. In 1968, while opening the club’s telescope-making shop in the basement of Griffith Observatory, he found a trash can filled with old papers. The document on top had been written by a prominent astronomer who helped design the 200-inch telescope at Mount Palomar.
He recovered the papers and realized he had found part of the club’s history. Over the years, Chilton used club records, old newspapers and genealogy tools to reconstruct the society’s past, eventually building a database of nearly 11,000 items, including letters, photographs, clippings and documents.
Through that work, Chilton helped establish that the club’s roots went back earlier than the 1929 date once used in its old logo, leading the organization to recognize 1926 as its founding year. He said the society is now the second-oldest telescope-making club of its kind in the United States, behind only a group founded in Springfield, Vermont, in 1923.
“I think it’s significant because there’s not many clubs of our kind that have survived that long,” Chilton said.
He attributes that survival in part to the club’s relationship with Griffith Observatory. The society has held meetings and star parties there for decades, and its members have been involved with the observatory since its earliest days. When the observatory opened, many of its staff were volunteers from the club, and several of its directors over the years have also been members, Chilton said.
“If it weren’t for Griffith, I don’t think we would have lasted this long,” he said.
Over the decades, the tools have changed. Chilton remembers an era of visual observing, when members used star charts, searched manually for faint objects and treated familiar celestial landmarks like old friends.
Chilton recalled early meetings at Griffith Observatory, where longtime members would sit together at the front of the auditorium and take young enthusiasts “under their wing.”
Today, he said, digital imaging and automated telescopes have brought in a new generation of members.
But the heart of the club, he said, remains the same.
“It’s just the same club, just different actors,” Chilton said, “but they’re doing the very same thing that we used to do.”
Armstrong, the society’s president, said that technology evolution is part of what makes amateur astronomy accessible today. Smart telescopes and phone-connected devices have lowered the barrier to entry, allowing casual observers to see and photograph objects that once required far more expertise.
At the same time, the club still welcomes people who prefer a more hands-on approach — building equipment, learning the sky manually or sharing views through a telescope with strangers.
For Armstrong, the next century will likely bring more discoveries, more technology and more questions from the public. He said the club’s role is to help people understand a changing universe while keeping alive the curiosity that has sustained it for 100 years.
“As technology and knowledge changes, we will continue to change and evolve with it,” he said, “and provide the same service to Los Angeles culture and communities as we always have.”