Lick Observatory was also the first facility to measure the distance from Earth to the moon.Ī tour around the Lick facility reveals a pattern of tangible changes resulting from multiple funding cuts in recent years. The Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope, painted in bright UC Berkeley colors, identifies supernovae and in the past has contributed to Nobel Prize-winning research. The newest telescope is the Automated Planet Finder, commissioned in 2012 to find planets around stars. Two are retired and two are only used for educational purposes, said Elinor Gates, support astronomer at Lick. Hamilton, five of which are used for research. They work every day that weather allows except for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Lick’s telescope was the most powerful in the world when it was built.įifteen full-time staffers currently live on the mountain and keep the facility running, including supporting astronomers, technicians, mechanics, an administrator and one visitor center and gift shop cashier. The University’s first observatory was funded by a donation from James Lick, a wealthy real estate owner in San Francisco. Lick Observatory opened for operation in 1888, two decades after the UC’s founding. In the event that not enough funding is found elsewhere to continue to operate the observatory, the telescope domes may only have each other for company. The community on the mountain has shrunk as a result of UC budget decreases and now faces a total loss of UC financial support starting in 2018. The once bustling mountain center is now noticeably empty, with only a handful of scientists and administrators scattered across the property. Drive about 20 miles east of San Jose, Calif., wind through the isolated foothills until you reach the University of California’s Lick Observatory on Mt.
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