Just a workweek after one of the world ’s great radio telescopeswas damagedin a still - unexplained event another is under threat . Unlike the Arecibo radio scope , theLick Observatoryon Mount Hamilton , in the Diablo Range , California is arguably more important for its historic significance than actual research carried out today , but astronomers still fear its loss .
Lick was the first for good occupy batch - top scope in the world , pave the way for the great innovative telescope . Putting telescope above a constituent of the atmosphere meliorate theirview of the stars , and when Lick was founded in 1887 the sky of California were very dark . The observatory was build at the bequest ofJames Lick , who is buried beneath where one of the scope now stands .
The drawback of such locations is that fires move faster acclivitous , do the tops of forested mountains hard to defend under conditions like thoseCalifornia is sufferingtoday . In 2003 most of the scope at Australia ’s historical Mount Stromlo Observatory weredestroyed by ardour , although its visitor meat has since been rebuilt .
The original telescope at Lick had an aperture of just 300 millimeter ( 12 inches ) ; today it is not uncommon for serious amateurs to keep scope of that size in their backyard . However , the observatory was rosy to haveE.E. Barnard , one of the most skilled data-based astronomers in chronicle , among its first stave . Barnard used the telescope to take some of the earliest pic of comet and nebulae .
after , a 91 - centimeter ( 36 inches ) telescope was tote up , which was for nine years the large in the human race . Barnard used this to notice the first new moon of Jupiter since Galileo ’s four nearly three centuries in the beginning . Three more of Jupiter ’s moons were also discovered at Lick .
In 1959 a 300 - centimeter ( 120 inches ) aperture scope was add , once again bring the observatory to the vanguard of global astronomy . However , encroaching light befoulment from Silicon Valley intend more recent gravid scope have been build elsewhere . Nevertheless , the decision of San Jose to utilise low - pressure sodium streetlights , which dissemble uranology less than wide wavelength alternatives , means research continues from the site , unlike many of the Earth ’s other corking historical observatories . Prior to the Kepler Space Telescope ’s launching , Lick was involved in the find of a declamatory proportion of the planet known beyond our Solar System .
During its 133 twelvemonth span , the observatory has survived many dangers , let in having a plane crash into the primary building in 1939 . However , just sidereal day ago another part of California put a likelyworld temperature disk , and the high temperature has fanned fires that pose the observatory ’s greatest scourge .
Fire crew are at the website with the main building being used as acommand stake . Meanwhile , cameras on the roofs of the visitor ’s center permit the earthly concern to helplesslywatch events unfold , review every three minutes .
