An out-of-this-world feeling

As soon as Jacques Dupinac heard that Griffith Observatory would reopen to the public Friday after its nearly five-year, $93-million makeover, the Barstow resident jumped online to book one of the first shuttle buses that would take visitors up to the domed landmark. His was scheduled to leave the Hollywood & Highland Center at 11:30 a.m. for the noon opening.

This fan of “all things that leave you in awe and wonder” wanted to be the first to set foot on uncharted territory.

As it happened, Dupinac, 45, and his guests -- life partner Anthony Trenholm, 37, and 7-year-old Dylan Overholtzer, the son of a friend -- had to settle for feeling like Buzz Aldrins instead of Neil Armstrongs, second men on the moon because the first bus ran out of seats.

But no matter: They were on their way, joining the ranks of Friday’s first wave of observatory visitors, arriving by shuttle from Hollywood & Highland or parking lots near the Los Angeles Zoo -- or even on foot.

Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes the observatory, officially declared the first visitor to the renovated facility to be 58-year-old Rebecca Gilchrist, a retired publicist who arrived at 11:15 a.m. after a 40-minute hike uphill from her Los Feliz home. But that didn’t stop the rest of Friday’s crowd from congratulating themselves.

Exulted Sharon Rogers, 53, of Los Angeles: “We’re part of history!”

Also on the shuttle was Stephen Johnson of Pfeiffer Partners Inc., principal architect of the renovation and quietly conspicuous among the casually dressed crowd in his black suit.

“Even the architects are taking the bus,” he said. “We’ve been working on this for 10 years, and to see the throngs of people coming in is an emotional moment.”

Said Griffith Observatory director Edwin C. Krupp, busily meeting and greeting and wearing a tie decorated with the face of the sun: “No question -- the first day of Griffith Observatory’s ‘return to space’ is a red-letter day.”

Carlos Nickerson, 35, of Claremont, an astrobiologist, was surprised at how many fellow scientists and science buffs were among the crowd. “I was here the last day the observatory was open back in 2002, and it was mentally a loss -- four years with nothing to go to, nothing to talk about,” he said. “So I had to come back. It’s like a rebirth.”

Some came to the opening to be a part of the future; others because a visit to the observatory, which first opened in 1935, brought back a dreamy past.

Pam Johnson, 62, of Torrance remembers driving to the observatory on dates while a student at Dorsey High School. Anyone special? “No -- whoever it was must not have made much of an impression on me,” she said with a laugh.

Things worked out better for Bill and Bonnie Largent, 87 and 79, respectively, of Orange. Griffith Observatory was the place where Bill proposed 61 years ago.

Bill met Bonnie during World War II when he was in the Navy. He was overseas for most of his six years in the service, but during a leave that brought him to USC, he met Bonnie, who was working in a nearby cafe.

“We’d go on dates to the movies, like young people do, or we’d go to the Palladium and dance -- they had all the big bands,” Bill said. “Then one day I said: ‘Bonnie, let’s go up to Griffith Observatory, it’s a nice little drive and we can see the lights.’ ”

Bill popped the question Oct. 4, 1945 -- but it took Bonnie until Oct. 18 to accept. “He proposed after we’d been dating only a month. I thought that was a little fast,” she said. “My gosh, we’d only been on a few dates, and he’d said he wanted to see the lights.”

Added Bill: “She says she was the first woman I had seen after coming back to the States, but that’s not true -- I saw a lot of women before I saw her. But she’s the one that stood out.”

diane.haithman@latimes.com