Lick Observatory

Our destination - I can't show you the twists and turns - as I was hanging on for those.

World's first mountain top Observatory

I just think that looking at the stars would be a mountain top thing. So why wait until the late 1880's to build one? I know deserts are good for that type of things if there is not city lights....but mountains seem a lot closer to the stars than lower down.

Keith and Theo, our very knowledgeable guides

We walked up the stairs to the middle of the dome and went out on the catwalk that surrounds the dome.

This is a working telescope inside the dome

This is the dome were toured that houses a working telescope

On our walk around the top of the mountain, they told us that in 1870 some odd, Mr. Lick bought the land on Hamilton mountain. The crews came up and found some squatters who had heard about the land being used for an observatory and wanted to get some money. Lick's friend and partner went around to pubs and saloons and got some rough men to go up with guns to discuss the situation. No shots were fired and the squatters left. They blasted the top of the mountain off to level it off to build buildings. They also built the windy, twisty road to bring up supplies. They called it Lick Avenue at one time. The first telescope was brought up in pieces by horse and wagon before assembling in the newly constructed dome. The buildings were all brick back then.

To bring the huge mirror for a bigger telescope, they used two trucks. When they would get to a turn, one truck would go ahead and a crane on the second truck would lift the mirror to the first truck. After turning the corner they would lift it back to the other truck. ALL THE WAY UP THE MOUNTAIN!!

 There are quite a few domes up there now, and dormitories, houses for dignitaries and at one time they had a school, diner, and other facilities. Now it is more bring your own supplies. There is a sign that says, Slow children at play. Various telescopes have been brought up and used for different types of things. When they stopped being manually manipulated, some of them stopped being as serviceable.

Looking out from the dome

Too bad the air quality wasn't perfect. It limited what we could see out on the horizon. Still is was a great sunset looking from the side of the dome. We also noted the guard house that the men use to watch for planes when the telescope is actually working. Someone inside manipulates the telescope with a laser beam going up to the sky, and another man is getting information and watching the sky for any approaching planes. The telescope is shut off until the plane(s) go by. The images are accessed remotely now and the scientists don't need to spend hours looking into the sky at night.

guard shack for plane watcher

It is dangerous for lasers to be in the sky when planes are. Here is the reason.

San Jose as seen from the Observatory

We sat down in a working classroom and watched a powerpoint on Mr. Lick's history and how the observatory was built. Fascinating and interesting stories.

This is manually manipulated and quite old, so they let us look at stars through it. Epsilon and Lyra. We were in the original dome that was first built, though the telescopes have changed through the years and the building has been updated. But still it is walking through history. The stars we saw from one spot in the sky and then they turned out all the white lights and just had red lights on and moved the telescope and  let us see a nebula. Fantastic! It was a blurry milky white ring.
Jeffrey said he had a picture of it from the Hubble and it is famous and is called the Ring Nebula. Keith said it was marked on a famous astrologist chart as "not a comet" and has been seen for hundreds of years. 

Next we visited "a Harry Potter" closet under the stairs. When they were building the observatory, nothing went to waste that came up the mountain by horse and wagon. The crates were torn apart that had equipment and stuff and were used in the building. Under the stairs is a crate board on a wall that says something about being shipped to Mt. Hamilton from Bombard & Co. No one is sure what was in the crate.

The crates were torn apart that had equipment and stuff and then were used in the building. Under the stairs is a crate board on a wall that says something about being shipped to Mt. Hamilton San Jose from Bombard & Co.  No one is sure what was in the crate.

Doorway under the circular stairs.

We had to go back that windy, twisty, scary road IN THE DARK to get back home.....

 and then I 680 had closures, but we prevailed and got home nicely. 

San Jose at night as seen from the mountain.

What a lot of fun! I highly recommend going and seeing this really cool observatory. I am not sure what the age limit is, but there were no babies or little kids there. Jayson would have loved it, I am sure.