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The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton , near San Jose, California, but is managed from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where its scientific staff moved to in the mid-1960s.
Lick Observatory
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| Altitude | 1,300 m (4,300 ft) |
| Weather | 300 clear nights/year |
| Webpage | mthamilton.ucolick.org |
| Telescopes |
| C. Donald Shane telescope | 3 m reflector |
| James Lick telescope | 91 cm refractor |
| Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope | 76 cm reflector |
| Anna L. Nickel telescope | 1 m reflector |
| Crossley telescope | 0.9 m reflector |
1 Early History
Lick Observatory was the world's first mountain-top observatory.
The observatory was constructed between 1876 and 1887, from a bequest from James Lick. In 1887 Lick's body was buried under the future site of the telescope, with a brass tablet bearing the inscription, "Here lies the body of James Lick."
Before construction could begin, a road to the site had to be built. All of the construction materials had to be brought to the site by horse and mule-drawn wagons, which could not negotiate a steep grade. To keep the grade below 6.5%, the road had to take a very winding and sinuous path, which the modern-day road still follows. Tradition maintains that this road has exactly 360 turns. (This is approximately correct, although uncertainty as to what should count as a turn makes precise verification impossible). Even those who do not normally suffer from motion-sickness find the road challenging.
The 91-cm refracting telescope on Mt. Hamilton was Earth's largest refracting telescope from when it saw first light on January 3, 1888, until the construction of Yerkes in 1897Events January 1 Brooklyn, New York merges with New York City. January 4 A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosheri, son-in-law of the Oba of Benin. This leads to a Punitive Expedition against Benin. February 2 The Pennsylvania state capitol is dest. In April, 1888, the observatory was turned over to the Regents of the University of California, and it became the first permanantly occupied mountain-top observatory in the world. The location provided excellent viewing performance due to lack of ambient light and pollution; additionally, the night air at the top of Mt. Hamilton is extremely calm, and the mountain peak is normally above the level of the fogFor the abbreviation, see FOG For the B-Side by Radiohead see Fog (song . Carrollton, Georgia, but the sky remains clear. Fog is cloud in contact with the ground. It occurs when moisture form the surface of the Earth evaporates; as this evaporated moistur that is often seen in the San Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area sometimes referred to as The Bay Area is a metropolitan area that lies along the San Francisco Bay in northern California. It is often defined as the area covered by the nine counties that border either San Francisco Bay or San.
2 Significant discoveries
The following astronomical objects were discovered at Lick Observatory:
- Several moonMoons The common noun moon (not capitalized) is used to mean any natural satellite of the other planets. There are, at least, 140 moons within Earth's solar system, and presumably many others orbiting the planets of other stars. Typically the larger gas gs of Jupiter
- AmaltheaAmalthea (pronounced "am al THEE a") is the third of Jupiter's known moons. It was discovered on September 9 1892 by Edward Emerson Barnard using the 36 inch (91 cm) refractor telescope at Lick Observatory. Amalthea was the last moon to be discovered by d
- Ananke
- Elara
- Himalia
- Lysithea
- Sinope (disputed)
- Several extrasolar planets
- Triple planet systems
- Double planet systems
- HD38529 (with Keck Observatory)
- HD12661 (with Keck)
- GJ876 (with Keck)
- 47 Ursa Majoris
