Lick Observatory -- Mt. Hamilton
Today, I took a short road trip to the Lick Observatory. Located high above
the city of San Jose, the observatory is at the forefront of many astronomical
discoveries. For example; did you know astronomers at Lick Observatory
have discovered about half of the 150 or so planest?
The observatory was the dream of James Lick. A business man who left
about three million bucks for the job. He didn't survive to see the job
completed.
In all, the facility has nine different telescopes and is run by the University
of California, Santa Cruz. Another little known fact is that Lick was once an
autonomous campus with no formal instruction given.
The road leading to the observatory is narrow and winding. Bicycles, cars
and motorcycles enjoy the road. If you go up and over the top, it's about
80 miles of curves.
The observatory is visible, on a clear day, from as far North as San
Francisco. Here it is just before your arrival from the San Jose area.
When you arrive, stop at the visitor's center where you can take a short
tour of the 32" refractor.
Sitting inside a larged domed facility, the telescope is protected from the
elements. Including wind, rain and snow. It seems that at least once a
year, the road is closed because an accumulation of snow has made
driving difficult if not impossible.
One thing you notice is how big the 32" is. At one time, it was the largest
in the world of its type. It's still one of the largest refractors.
Another thing you notice is how far off the floor the business end is...
Look around and you'll see geared tracks along the columns. These are
used to raise the floor to the required height.
A close up of the geared track.
Not such a great shot but this is looking down the column toward the
basement. It's obvious, looking down, that the floor rises!
The observatory is also home to a 120" telescope. It's hiding in this
dome.
Visitors can look at the 120" scope. It's huge.
The observer sits inside this one and looks down at the mirror. On
really bright nights, like when the moon make observation of deep
space difficult, they direct the image down to what's called the Coude
observation point.
Here you get an idea of how the observer gets to his perch.
As mentioned, the facility hosts nine different telesocpes, residences
for the science staff and guest astronomers. In addition, there's a post
office and a live in police officer--in short, a small community. Fire is a
big concern because of the remoteness of the facility--it's 30 miles away
from San Jose. Back in July, there was a fire on the back side of the
Mount Hamilton location. Lick staff uses these water canons connected
directly to the fire hydrants to fight fire that threatens the facility.
Here's a view looking back toward San Jose. It's hard to see but the
Airship hangers of Moffett Field are barely visble in the distance.
I hope you've enjoyed this visit into a piece of California's history and
still an important scientific research facility, Lick Observatory.
Ian
the city of San Jose, the observatory is at the forefront of many astronomical
discoveries. For example; did you know astronomers at Lick Observatory
have discovered about half of the 150 or so planest?
The observatory was the dream of James Lick. A business man who left
about three million bucks for the job. He didn't survive to see the job
completed.
In all, the facility has nine different telescopes and is run by the University
of California, Santa Cruz. Another little known fact is that Lick was once an
autonomous campus with no formal instruction given.
The road leading to the observatory is narrow and winding. Bicycles, cars
and motorcycles enjoy the road. If you go up and over the top, it's about
80 miles of curves.
The observatory is visible, on a clear day, from as far North as San
Francisco. Here it is just before your arrival from the San Jose area.
When you arrive, stop at the visitor's center where you can take a short
tour of the 32" refractor.
Sitting inside a larged domed facility, the telescope is protected from the
elements. Including wind, rain and snow. It seems that at least once a
year, the road is closed because an accumulation of snow has made
driving difficult if not impossible.
One thing you notice is how big the 32" is. At one time, it was the largest
in the world of its type. It's still one of the largest refractors.
Another thing you notice is how far off the floor the business end is...
Look around and you'll see geared tracks along the columns. These are
used to raise the floor to the required height.
A close up of the geared track.
Not such a great shot but this is looking down the column toward the
basement. It's obvious, looking down, that the floor rises!
The observatory is also home to a 120" telescope. It's hiding in this
dome.
Visitors can look at the 120" scope. It's huge.
The observer sits inside this one and looks down at the mirror. On
really bright nights, like when the moon make observation of deep
space difficult, they direct the image down to what's called the Coude
observation point.
Here you get an idea of how the observer gets to his perch.
As mentioned, the facility hosts nine different telesocpes, residences
for the science staff and guest astronomers. In addition, there's a post
office and a live in police officer--in short, a small community. Fire is a
big concern because of the remoteness of the facility--it's 30 miles away
from San Jose. Back in July, there was a fire on the back side of the
Mount Hamilton location. Lick staff uses these water canons connected
directly to the fire hydrants to fight fire that threatens the facility.
Here's a view looking back toward San Jose. It's hard to see but the
Airship hangers of Moffett Field are barely visble in the distance.
I hope you've enjoyed this visit into a piece of California's history and
still an important scientific research facility, Lick Observatory.
Ian
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Comments
James Lick is buried underneath the largest refractor.
In addition to the to the contributions of science, San Francisco can also thank James Lick for Ghirardelli Chocolate; Domingo Ghirardelli moved from Peru came to the bay area because of him. I'm just amazed that this place even got built since it was constructed in the 1800s. Everything was brought up by horse, wagons or needed to be hand carried. Can you just imagine trying to bring up a 32" refractor up miles of windy roads on a horse pulled wagon?
They have a great summer program where vistors can look through their telecopes and attend a few lectures. It's difficult to get tickets (lottery at the beginning of the summer), but it's worth the wait and just costs $5.
It was a beautiful day to be outside the bay area. Thank you so much for sharing!
What's not apparent is the difficulty in building the road to the facility. It's
what makes it such a great motorcycling road.
In the 1985 earthquake, a significant amount of structural damage was done to
the dome. So much so that the telescope was partially disassembled and no
one was allowed in the building. At the time, the dome (which weighs 90 tons)
sat on un-reinforced massonary walls (a fancy term for brick). The repairs
were completed prior to the 1989 Loma Prieta quake--which would have
most certainly destroyed the dome under which Lick is buried.
One of the other benefits is that once you cross over the summit and head
down the other side, it's like you're in a different world. There's the occassional
house but otherwise, it's just cattle and the road.
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Some day I'll get to go up there with an instrument...
In fact the one time we wanted to go up in "winter" they closed the road because of less than 1 inch of snow. We had just moved from the east coast and had snow tires and were thinking, "Geesh, what's the big deal." After living her for 20 years I have a better understanding of how the altitude changes affects driving. Something I didn't have to worry about on Long Island, or coastal New Jersey and Connecticut.
I think we took that road once as a "shortcut" to the central valley. There's a drastic change in scenery from the west side of the mountain to the east side on that road.
I need to get out more! :-)
Thanks for posting the journey, it was very interesting. One of the drawbacks to that road is that there is simply no place to stop if you are in a car.
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Thanks for sharing, nice photos interesting bit of history. And you drove a car up there shame on you: rofl
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Not to worry, should the weather hold, I'll be going back on Saturday...on
the bike
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Gary
Unsharp at any Speed
365 turns...well, maybe not that many but the road wraps around itself
a lot
There's got to be at least 300 turns in this road. I remember last year, Andy and I hit Joe Grant and the Observatory and I almost hurled on the way back down :puke It didn't help that Andy drives really fast like me....
Steve
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
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Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
That is a very cool site.