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James C Lick Observatory |
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By the time we reached the peak I was in need of fresh air (I get a little
motion sick). And boy is that what we got! TAKE A JACKET!!! It was cold and
windy. It was in the mid 70's in the valley, and I bet it wasn't more than 55
degrees there. There were a surprising number of people visiting and we had
to wait a few minutes for a parking spot. It's really cool to look out from
the top of the hill (next to the largest observatory), and see smaller
observatory's scattered on the adjacent hills. There are 8 in all. We
visited 2.
The main telescope (under which James Lick himself is buried) is
massive. Every 30 minutes a small group is lead into the telescope room and
given a short presentation explaining the statistics of the scope, stories of
James Lick and his family, and describing briefly the research that is
ongoing. A limited number of astronomers, NASA members, and SETI researchers
live on the mountain year round, along with all the members of their families.
So scattered among the various observatories are many old, weathered homes.
The floor of the room in which the large telescope is held rises about 20
feet, to reach the eye piece of the scope, and a nine foot slit opens to
reveal the night sky. Originally UC Berkeley was in charge of the
observatory, but now UC Santa Cruz runs it. I believe the tour guide said
that the telescopes are used about 225 nights a year.
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