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The Lick Observatory, San Jose, California- The Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range near San Jose, California, USA. The observatory is managed from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where its scientific staff moved to in the mid-1960s.
- The main observatory building and the North (small) Dome, home of the Nickel Reflector
- Organization University of California
- Location San Jose, California, USA
- Coordinates 37°20′35″ N 121°38′14″ W
- Altitude 1,300 m (4,300 ft)
- Weather 300 clear nights/year
- Webpage www.mthamilton.ucolick.org
- Telescopes
- C. Donald Shane telescope, 3m reflector
- James Lick telescope, 91cm refractor
- Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope, 76cm reflector
- Anna L. Nickel telescope, 1m reflector
- Crossley telescope, 0.9m reflector
- 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."
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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 1897. In April, 1888, the observatory was turned over to the Regents of the University of California, and it became the first permanently 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 fog that is often seen in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- With the growth of San Jose, and the rest of Silicon Valley, light pollution became a problem for the observatory. In the 1970s, a site in the Santa Lucia Mountains, southeast of Monterey, was evaluated for possible relocation of many of the telescopes. However, funding for the move was not available, and in 1980 San Jose began a program to reduce the effects of lighting, most notably replacing all streetlamps with low pressure sodium lamps. The result is that the Mount Hamilton site remains a viable location for a major working observatory.
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- James Lick (1796-1876)
- Lick was born in
Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania. He learned to make fine pianos and at
twenty-five he went to South America where he prospered in his trade for
many years. In 1847 he decided to move to San Francisco, and the
following January he sailed through the Golden Gate. He had with him
$30,000 in gold coins, his work bench,
and 600 lbs of chocolate on consignment from his neighbour in Lima, Domingo Ghirardelli.
- Lick purchased land in San Francisco and near San Jose where he lived for twenty years. Through farsighted investment in real estate he amassed a fortune of three million dollars. As he neared eighty, alone and ill, he placed his entire estate in the hands of a Board of Trustees to administer. His largest single benefaction was the sum of $700,000 to erect a telescope "superior to and more powerful than any yet made, and also a suitable observatory connected therewith." He chose the site of Mt. Hamilton although he was never able to ascend the mountain. It was the first large mountain top observatory and it set the pattern for others to follow. By Lick's direction it became a part of the University of California on its completion in 1888.
- Mount Hamilton was named after Reverend Laurentine Hamilton (1826 - 1882).
- In the summer of 1861 William H. Brewer,
director of field work for the California State Geological Survey,
invited his long-time friend, the Reverend Laurentine Hamilton, to
accompany him on a mountain climbing expedition. Their goal was a peak
judged to be the highest in the Diablo Range, 13 miles east of San Jose.
After an arduous mule ride, the party hiked the last 3 miles on foot.
Brewer and his assistant, Charles F. Hoffman, carried heavy surveying
instruments and soon fell behind. "As we neared the summit," Brewer
later recalled, "Mr. Hamilton pushed on ahead of us, and reaching it,
swung his hat in the air and shouted back to us: 'First on top - for
this is the highest point."' Sometime later that year, Brewer or Hoffman
suggested that the mountain be called Hamilton, in honour of Reverend
Hamilton, and the name was adopted.
- Hamilton was born near Seneca lake, in Western New York, was graduated from Hamilton College in the class of 1849, entered the Presbyterian ministry, came to California in 1856 and assumed charge of the church at Columbia, Tuolumne county, "the queen of the Southern mines." From Columbia he removed to San lose in 1859 and to Oakland five years later. At Oakland he became estranged from the Presbyterian Church and established the Independent Church, where on Easter Sunday morning, 1882, just as he had said, "We know not what matter is...." he dropped in his pulpit among the lilies of the platform and died as he had wished to die, in harness.
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