Lick Observatory Tour

Lick Observatory Tour will take place in the evening of Tuesday, April 17. We will carpool to Mt. Hamilton and back to San Jose. 

Tour the world’s first permanent mountaintop observatory, site of historic discoveries from the 19th century to the present day.  It was here that Edward E. Barnard discovered Jupiter’s moon Amalthea, and James Keeler discovered what is now called the Encke Gap in Saturn’s rings, and it was here that many of the first radial-velocity exoplanets were discovered.  The tour includes a lecture on the observatory’s history, a visit to the world-class 3-meter telescope, and a chance to look through the historic 36-inch refractor — the world’s third-largest refracting telescope, which is literally built over the grave of philanthropist James Lick, so there are ghost stories too!