Lick Observatory: A 19th Century Observatory With a Wooden Hydraulic Floor #SpaceSaturday
If you watch the sunset from the very top of Mount Hamilton, you’ll have the opportunity to experience a strange atmospheric effect. As the sun sets, strong atmospheric refraction narrows the image of the sun at point of contact, creating a reddish mushroom effect. The refraction lasts for only a moment. Blink and it’s gone. That sort of effect
The main refracting telescope inside the Lick Observatory was the largest of its kind when it came together in 1888. Its 36 in. wide glass lenses, which collected and focused light, performed their task from atop Mount Hamilton outside San Jose, California. The facility was the first in the world to take advantage of the clearer air found on a mountaintop.
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The smaller telescope required a 13.5 ft diameter circular support pier. Workers installed a capstone to hold the mounting on top of the pier, which was held in place with cement and “a long iron bolt that goes clear through the stone to the bottom (of the) arch in the vault below,” according to Fraser. Fraser and his crew also built the dome enclosing the telescope by steam-treating wooden beams and bending them into place with the help of anchors. A layer of plated-copper sheeting made up the rest of the structure, save a sheet of corrugated steel to cover the 3 ft wide opening needed to see the sky, according to Eye on the Sky: Lick Observatory’s First Century by Donald E.E. Osterbrock, John R. Gustafson, and Shiloh Unruh.
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