Lick Observatory

An observatory belonging to the University of California. The observatory site is on Mount Hamilton in the Californian Diablo Range at a height of 1,300 metres (4,200 feet). This is now only an observing station, and it is administered from the University of California's Santa Cruz campus. The funds for the observatory were provided to the University by a millionaire businessman, James Lick (1796-1876). The building and a 92-centimetre (36-inch) refracting telescope were completed in 1888, twelve years after Lick's death. He is buried at the base of the telescope. The main research telescope is now the Shane 3-metre (120-inch) reflector, in operation since 1959. The 92-centimetre (36-inch) Crossley reflector, built by Andrew Common, was presented to the observatory in 1895 by its English owner, Edward Crossley. The most recent instrument is the Nickel 1-metre (40-inch) reflector, a modern automated instrument completed in 1980. There is also a 50-centimetre (20-inch) astrograph, with twin tubes designed to take photographs simultaneously in the blue and yellow regions of the spectrum.