lick
Yesterdaty, David & I took a trip up to the Lick Observatory, atop Mt. Hamilton. The driver took just over an hour, with the 26 mile series of switchbacks to the summit taking most of the time. When we left the house, it was rather foggy & overcast, however once we got within about a mile of the summit, we climbed up through the fog, and had amazing views in all directions. We spent a little while walking around outside, and then headed inside the main building. There were a number of exhibits along the walls, demonstrating what the 9 different telescopes at the summit had accomplished over the years. The oldest telescope was completed in 1888, and at the time, was the largest telescope in the world. We got a nice tour of this telescope, which was still quite large (weighing in 15 tons), and about 30ft long. There are actually hydraulic lifts under the floor so that the entire floor of the room rises up 16ft to allow for viewing through the viewscope of the telescope. Afterwards, we walked half a mile to the largest telescope on the mountain, which has a mirror with a 10ft diameter. As large as the first, 120 year old, telescope seemed, the 120-inch monster dwarfed it easily. While we weren't allowed into the same room as the telescope, there was a nice sized viewing window, plus a nifty 16 minute long video which showed how it was built back in 1955.