Lick Observatory

Lick Observatory

Lick Observatory's Great Lick 91-centimeter (36-inch) telescope housed in the South (large) Dome of main building
Organization	University of California
Code	662
Location	San Jose, California, US
Coordinates	37°20′29″N 121°38′34″W / 37.34139°N 121.64278°W / 37.34139; -121.64278Coordinates: 37°20′29″N 121°38′34″W / 37.34139°N 121.64278°W / 37.34139; -121.64278
Altitude	1,283 m (4,209 ft)
Weather	300 clear nights/year
Website	http://www.ucolick.org
Telescopes
C. Donald Shane telescope 3 m (9.8 ft) reflector Automated Planet Finder 2.4 m (94 in) reflector James Lick telescope 91 cm (36 in) refractor Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope 76 cm (30 in) reflector Anna L. Nickel telescope 1 m (39 in) reflector Crossley telescope 90 cm (35 in) reflector Carnegie telescope 50.8 cm (20 in) twin reflector
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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, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, US. The observatory is managed by the University of California Observatories, with headquarters on the University of California, Santa Cruz, campus, where its scientific staff moved in the mid-1960s.

Lick Observatory is the world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory. The observatory, in a Classical Revival style structure, was constructed between 1876 and 1887, from a bequest from James Lick of $700,000 (approximately $22 million in 2014 US dollars). Lick, although primarily a carpenter and piano maker, chose the precise site atop Mount Hamilton and was buried there in 1887 under the future site of the telescope, with a brass tablet bearing the inscription, "Here lies the body of James Lick".

Lick additionally requested that Santa Clara County construct a "first-class road" to the summit, completed in 1876. Lick chose John Wright, of San Francisco's Wright & Sanders firm of architects, to design both the Observatory and the Astronomer's House. 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 (California State Route 130) still follows. Tradition maintains that this road has exactly 365 turns (This is approximately correct, although uncertainty as to what should count as a turn makes precise verification impossible). The road is closed when there is snow at Lick Observatory.

The first telescope installed at the observatory was a 12-inch refractor made by Alvan Clark. Astronomer E. E. Barnard used the telescope to make "exquisite photographs of comets and nebulae," according to D. J. Warner of Warner & Swasey Company.