Lick Observatory
Alternative names | lick |
---|---|
Named after | James Lick |
Organization | |
Observatory code | 662 |
Location | near San Jose, California |
Coordinates | 37°20′28″N 121°38′35″W / 37.3411°N 121.6431°W |
Altitude | 1,283 m (4,209 ft) |
Website | ucolick |
Telescopes | |
Related media on Commons | |
The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. 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. It is named after James Lick.
The first new moon of Jupiter to be identified since the time of Galileo, Amalthea, the planet's fifth moon, was discovered at this observatory in 1892.
Early history
Lick Observatory is the world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory.[1] The observatory, in a
Lick additionally negotiated that
The first telescope installed at the observatory was a 12-inch (300-millimeter)
In 1880, a 36-inch (91-centimeter) lens was commissioned to
Under the University of California
In May 1888, the observatory was turned over to the Regents of the University of California,[9] and it became the first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory in the world.
In 1905 (Jan. 5 and Feb. 27), Charles Dillon Perrine discovered the sixth and seventh moons of Jupiter (Elara and Himalia) on photographs taken with the 36-inch Crossley reflecting telescope which he had recently rebuilt.[10][11]
In 1928, Donald C. Shane studied carbon stars, and was able to distinguish them into spectral classes R0–R9 and N0–N7 (on this scale N7 is the reddest and R0 the bluest).[12] This was an expansion of Annie Jump Cannon of Harvard's work on carbon stars that had divided them into R and N types.[12] The N stars have more cyanogen and the R stars have more carbon.[12]
On May 21, 1939, during a nighttime fog that engulfed the summit, a U.S. Army Air Force
The pilot of the plane, Lt. Richard F. Lorenz, and passenger Private W. E. Scott were killed instantly. The telephone line was broken by the crash, so no help could be called for at first. Eventually help arrived together with numerous reporters and photographers, who kept arriving almost all night long. Evidence of their numbers could be seen the next day by the litter of flash bulbs carpeting the parking lot.
The press widely covered the accident and many reports emphasized the luck in not losing a large cabinet of spectrograms which was knocked over by the crash coming through an astronomer's office window. There was no damage to the telescope dome.[13][14][15][16]
In 1950, the
Time-signal service
In 1886, Lick Observatory begins supplying Railroad Standard Time to the Southern Pacific Railroad, and to other businesses, over telegraph lines. The signal was generated by a clock manufactured by E. Howard & Co. specifically for the Observatory, and which included an electric apparatus for transmitting the time signal over telegraph lines. While most of the nation's railroads received their time signal from the U.S. Naval Observatory time signal via Western Union's telegraph lines, the Lick Observatory Time-Signal was used by railroads from the West coast all the way to Colorado.[17]
21st century
With the growth of San Jose, and the rest of Silicon Valley,
The International Astronomical Union named Asteroid 6216 San Jose to honor the city's efforts toward reducing light pollution.[18]
In 2006, there were 23 families in residence, plus typically between two and ten visiting astronomers from the University of California campuses, who stay in dormitories while working at the observatory. The little town of Mount Hamilton atop the mountain has its own police and a post office, and until 2005 had a one-room K-8 school.[19]
In 2008, there were 38 people residing on the mountain; the chef and commons dinner were decommissioned.[citation needed] By 2013, with continuing budget and staff cuts there remain only about nineteen residents and it is common for the observers to work from remote observing stations rather than make the drive, partly as a result of the business office raising the cost to stay in the dorms.[citation needed] The swimming pool has been closed.[20]
In 2013, one of Lick Observatory's key funding sources was scheduled for elimination in 2018, which many worried would result in the closing of the entire observatory.[21][22]
In November 2014, the University of California announced its intention to continue support of Lick Observatory.[23]
Telescopes at Lick Observatory are used by researchers from many campuses of the
In 2015, Google donated $1 million to the observatory over two years.[24]
In August 2020, the observatory was in danger of being destroyed by the rapidly growing SCU Lightning Complex fires. Firefighters were on standby at Lick Observatory to defend the buildings if necessary.[25] As of the evening of August 19, 2020, the fire was on observatory property and moving quickly.[26] While the residences on Mt. Hamilton sustained some damage during the following night, the telescopes and domes survived.[27]
Significant discoveries
The following astronomical objects were discovered at Lick Observatory:
- Measurement of the size of the major moons of Jupiter by A. A. Michelson in 1891[28]
- Several moons of Jupiter[29]
- Near-Earth asteroid (29075) 1950 DA[32]
- Several extrasolar planets
- Quintuple planet system
- Triple planet system
- Whipple Observatory)[34]
- Double planet systems
- Keck Observatory)[35]
- HD 12661 (with Keck)[35]
- Gliese 876 (with Keck)[36]
- 47 Ursae Majoris[37]
- The first detection of active galaxy[38]
- The jet emerging from the active nucleus in Messier 87[39]
- The hidden spectropolarimetry
In addition to observations of natural phenomena, Lick was also the location of the first
Equipment
Below is a list of the nine telescopes currently[update] operating at the observatory:[42]
- The C. Donald Shane telescope 120-inch (3-meter) reflector (Shane Dome, Tycho Brahe Peak). Its instrumentation includes:
- The Hamilton spectrometer
- The Kast double spectrograph
- The ShaneAO adaptive optics system with laser guide star
- The Automated Planet Finder 94-inch (2.4-meter) reflector. First light was originally scheduled for 2006. The telescope finally came into regular use in 2013.
- The Anna L. Nickel 39-inch (1-meter) reflector (North (small) Dome, Main Building)
- The Great Lick 36-inch (91-centimeter) refractor (South Dome, Main Building, Observatory Peak)
- The Crossley 35-inch (90-centimeter) reflector (Crossley Dome, Ptolemy Peak)
- The Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) 30-inch (76-centimeter) reflector (24-inch Dome, Kepler Peak)
- The 24-inch (60-centimeter) Coudé Auxiliary Telescope (Inside of Shane Dome, South wall, Tycho Brahe Peak)
- The Tauchmann 20-inch (50-centimeter) reflector (Tauchmann Dome atop the water tank, Huygens Peak)
- The Carnegie 20-inch (50-centimeter) twin refractor (Double Astrograph Dome, Tycho Brahe Peak)
Below is a list of equipment that formerly operated at the observatory:
- CCD Comet Camera 135-millimeter (5.3-inch) Nikon camera lens ("The Outhouse" Southwest of the Shane Dome, Tycho Brahe Peak)[citation needed]
See also
- Charles Dillon Perrine
- Harland Epps
- List of astronomical observatories
- List of largest optical refracting telescopes
References
Citations
- ^ "The Lick Observatory Collections Project: Building the Observatory". collections.ucolick.org. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g
Kirby-Smith, H. T. (1976). U.S. Observatories. New York, US: Litton Educational Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-0-442-24451-4.
- ^ "Lick Observatory, Mt. Hamilton, Cal". loc.gov. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
- ^ a b c Foote, H.S. (1888). Santa Clara County, California. Chicago, Illinois: The Lewis Publishing Company. pp. 126–133.
- ^ Calhoun, Liz. ""To The Unmounted Lens" from Hand-book of the Lick Observatory". University Lowbrow Astronomers. University of Michigan. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
- ^ California Architect and Business News, 9/1881; Lick Observatory Archives.
- ^ On the road to Mt. Hamilton, a guide book for the tourist ... San Jose?.
- ^ Mount Hamilton (California)
- ^
"The Lick Observatory Completed (from San Francisco Alto May 22, 1888)". The New York Times. May 29, 1888. p. 5. ISSN 0362-4331.
Sometime this week the Trustees of the James Lick Estate will convey to the Board of Regents of the State University the Mount Hamilton Observatory.
- ^ JSTOR 40691209.
- ^ doi:10.1086/103612.
- ^ a b c "Observing Carbon Stars". Sky & Telescope. May 22, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
- ^
Mayall, Nicholas Ulrich (1970). "Nicholas U. Mayall". In Stone, Irving (ed.). There was light: Autobiography of a university: Berkeley, 1868–1968. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. pp. 117–8.
- ^
"2 Die as Army Plane Hits Lick Observatory, Damaging Offices and Destroying Records". The New York Times (Late City ed.). Associated Press. May 22, 1939. p. 1. ISSN 0362-4331.
Lost in thick fog, an army attack plane crashed into Lick Astronomical Observatory of the University of California on Mount Hamilton tonight. Its two occupants were killed. They were Lieut. R. F. Lorenz, 25, of March Field, the pilot, and Private W. E. Scott, a passenger.
- ^ Airplane Crash at the Lick Observatory Archived August 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Lick Observatory A-17A Archived April 22, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Holden, Edward Singleton (1888). Hand-book of the Lick Observatory of the University of California. University of California Libraries. San Francisco : The Bancroft Company. pp. 99.
- ^ UCSC, Lick Observatory designate asteroid for the city of San Jose Archived August 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Mt. Hamilton Elementary – School Directory Details (CA Dept of Education)". CA Dept of Education. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
- ^ Black, Annetta. "Lick Observatory". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
- ^ Hoban, Virgie (September 2, 2014). "Facing a Waning Future". The Daily Californian. Berkeley, California. pp. 1+. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
- New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
- UC Santa Cruz. pp. 1+. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
- ^ "Google gives Lick Observatory $1 million – Astronomy Now". Retrieved December 11, 2019.
- ^ Alyssa Pereira (August 19, 2020). "The 132-year-old Lick Observatory threatened by SCU Lightning Complex Fire". sfgate.com. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
- ^ Lick Observatory (August 19, 2020). "News as of 5pm". Instagram. Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
- ^ Tim Stephens (August 20, 2020). "UC's Lick Observatory threatened by fire". Retrieved August 20, 2020.
- .
- ^ Proctor, Mary (March 5, 1905). "Jupiter's Newly Discovered Moons and Solar Cyclones" (PDF). The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
- doi:10.1086/101715.
- ^
Nicholson, S. B. (1914). "Discovery of the Ninth Satellite of Jupiter". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 26 (1): 197–198. doi:10.1086/122336.
- ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 29075 (1950 DA)" (2018-02-09 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
- S2CID 55779685.
- ^ "A Triple-Planet System Orbiting Ups Andromedae". San Francisco State University. Lick Observatory. Retrieved June 23, 2008.
- ^ doi:10.1086/320224.
- S2CID 2679107.
- doi:10.1086/324336.
- .
- Bibcode:1918PLicO..13....9C.
- doi:10.1086/163559.
- ^ "History of Laser Ranging". University of Texas Center for Space Research. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- ^ "Telescopes of the Lick Observatory". University of California Observatories. Archived from the original on December 12, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
Sources
- Campbell, William Wallace (September 1902). "The Lick Observatory And Its Problems". Overland Monthly, and Out West Magazine. XL (3): 321–. Retrieved August 15, 2009.
- Vasilevskis, S. and Osterbrock, D. E. (1989) "Charles Donald Shane" Biographical Memoirs, Volume 58 pp. 489–512, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, ISBN 0-309-03938-X.
Further reading
- Holden, Edward S. (1888). Hand-book of the Lick Observatory of the University of California.
- "Lick Observatory Edition". Mining and Scientific Press. June 23, 1888.
- ISBN 978-0521321051