Lick Observatory, Mt Hamilton

[Knotahippie]

Took a little trip to Mt. Hamilton to see the Lick Obsevatory yesterday.

A lot of history! Just amazes me what people built back then and with no electricity. The retractable dome, the hydraulic floor, and the telescope used hydraulic pumps powered by wind. Kicking myself for not getting more pics of the dome workings, but I was paying attention always next time.

...And the tour is free.

There's a few telescopes of various sizes and ages in the area but the two largest have guided tours. Some pretty good Wiki info about the area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lick_Observatory

The first telescope in the photos is the Lick telescope.

The second is the Donald Shane telescope.

 

[Mr. Sir]

Cool! I love telescopes.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I bet that was interesting!

 

[Knotahippie]

It's cool how the entire floor raises up to the telescope using hydraulic pumps.

They said it was a 20% oil mix in the water to keep rust down.

Ancient looking stuff!

 

[Blinky]

Cool, I love tarantulas.

 

[Knotahippie]

That tarantula is actually on the moon.

 

[Blinky]

She won't find much to eat up there.

 

[Che]

So those are all moonrocks!? Wow!

Neat old barbed wire.....

That looks like a fun day.

 

[stehansen]

I outran the campus police there in 1971.

 

[SkwerI]

I outran the campus police there in 1971.

OK, you can't stop there. That's an incomplete interesting story and we don't allow that here.

 

[MasterBlaster]

That tarantula is actually on the moon.

I've heard about those moon tarantulas!

 

[stehansen]

Me and two of my buddies had been drinking beer all day and went up to there on the way to San Jose to visit my buddie's cousin who was a law student there. It had snowed there and we were tobogganing down this hill. It was on a Sunday and the place was closed, but this campus cop told us we couldn't do that there. I'm not one to question any authority figure not even a campus police but my buddy tells him that he's the toughest m f'er in Patterson and if he wants to challenge him for who's the toughest m f'er on the top of this mountain at this particular time just come on over. I'm thinking to myself I'm going to have to call my parents to bail me out of jail because John is in one of his I'm the toughest guy in the world moods and can't keep his mouth shut. The campus police guy tries his radio but it wouldn't work. So he starts running back to his car and I'm running toward my pickup and saying let's get out of here tough guy and so he and his brother hopped in my pickup and we had about a 100 yard head start on the campus police guy who was driving a dodge dart (now you know why I had a chance). As you come out of the gate you head one way to go toward San Jose and the other way toward Patterson and I got there far enough ahead of him that he didn't know which way I went and he picked the wrong way. I'm thinking he knew that we were from Patterson so he thought we would go that way, but we went toward San Jose. We went to my buddie's cousin's apartment in San Jose and drank for a couple of hours and then went home but we went around by way of Livermore. The next day I had this huge rash on my arms and I had gotten poison sumac while tobogganing. I suppose the statue of limitations has run out on this so I can confess.

 

[SkwerI]

 

[MasterBlaster]

You Outlaw, you!!!

 

[Knotahippie]

Seems like a good place to outrun the law...drunk!

 

[stehansen]

Yeah, we were really using our heads.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Weren't we all, back then???

 

[Bodean]

1971 Steve?

Dang.

That's Classic.

I knew you're a hellraiser.

 

[stehansen]

Don't tell my kids about this one.