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 James Lick telescope, housed in the South (large) Dome of main building
Layout of the Lick Observatory. The dome housing the 91-centimeter (36-inch) Great Lick refractor telescope is on the right.
Lick Observatory in 1900
The Great Lick 91-centimeter (36-inch) refractor, in an 1889 engraving
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Historically, observatories were as simple as containing an astronomical sextant or Stonehenge.
The Sphinx Observatory on a mountain top in the Swiss Alps at 3,571 m (11,716 ft)
Atacama Large Millimeter Array, Chile, at 5,058 m (16,594 ft)
Paranal Observatory, Chile, home of the VLT at 2,635 m (8,645 ft)
The Mauna Kea Observatories, Hawaii, home of several of the world's largest optical telescopes at 4,205 m (13,796 ft)
