On the road: Lick Observatory

Our two-day stargazing event at Chabot Observatory and Science Center in Oakland, held in conjunction with Celestron, concluded on Saturday night. On Sunday, August 26, I spent much of the day at another center of astronomical history, Lick Observatory. Located at 4,200 feet (1,280 meters) on the summit of Mount Hamilton, south of San Francisco and east of San Jose, Lick is operated by the University of California and is one of the major historical observatories of the United States. Founded with the bequest of the wealthy real estate magnate James Lick, who adored science, the observatory commenced operations in 1888. The observatory’s first and most famous instrument is the Alvan Clark and Sons 36-inch refractor, second in size only to the 40-inch Clark at Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin. Lick was so supportive of astronomy as an important science of the future that the millionaire insisted on being entombed below the great telescope’s pier.

Quite a few planetary satellites have been discovered at Lick Observatory, including Jupiter’s fifth moon, Amalthea, found by Edward E. Barnard using the 36-inch refractor. And several notable extrasolar planets have been found at Lick, including planetary systems around 55 Cancri, 47 Ursae Majoris, and Upsilon Andromedae. The list of Lick Observatory astronomers reads like a who’s who of astronomy, and includes Barnard, Edward S. Holden, William W. Campbell, James Keeler, Nicholas Mayall, C. Donald Shane, Donald E. Osterbrock, and many others.

Walking through Lick, seeing the telescopes, checking out the offices and the hallways — it all brings the sense of this West Coast history of astronomy powerfully home to visitors. Seeing the 36-inch refractor is an amazing experience. The 120-inch Shane reflector is stunning as well; this huge scope, commissioned in 1959, added a large number of research capabilities to Lick. It allows numerous instruments to be attached for a wide array of research projects. The observatory’s Crossley reflector, built by amateur astronomer Andrew A. Common in England in 1879, was used at Lick to take many great early images of clusters, galaxies, and nebulae. The 1-meter Nickel reflector supplements the Shane Telescope. More recent instruments like the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) and Automated Planet Finder (APF) serve special operations: KAIT searches nightly for supernovae while APF, now being commissioned, will explore the sky for exoplanets.

If you’re in the San Francisco or San Jose area, I urge you to visit Lick Observatory (you can preview the trip with more images I captured in the Astronomy.com Reader Photo Gallery). The road is legendarily winding, with numerous incredible switchbacks, even as observatory roads go. But the reward of reaching and exploring the observatory will give you an amazing way to spend a day and learn a great deal about the history of astronomy.