The University of California, II [pp. 479-500]

I iie Lick.sti -vomoii-cal Departmenzi t.
escope, are used by Barnard, and by
others when not in use by him. The
meridian circle is in charge of Professor
Schaeberle; the time service, of Professor Campbell, but most of the work is
done by Mr. Townley. The meteorological and earthquake instruments are
in charge of Mr. Colton. Professor
Holden, besides the general charge of
the establishment and of forwarding
each one's work, the work in photography, and until Mr. Townley was appointed as the first Hearst Fellow, in spectroscopy, has most of the work of librarian, the scientific correspondence, and
the editorial charge of the publications
of the Astronomical Society.
The Observatory, as turned over to
the University, had a site of I9OI- acres,
since increased to 258I 2 acres; this is
mainly made up of State and national
grants, for most of the mountain-top
was fortunately public land. One object
in getting so large a reservation was to
guard against brush fires, by which the
buildings at one time were threatened.
The main building consists of two
domes, connected by a hall I2I feet long,
along the west side of which are study
and work rooms. The great dome, 78
feet in diameter, occupies the south end
of the leveled platform; it moves on the
top of a tower, whose foundations are
set deep in the rock. The moving parts
weigh nearly 89 tons, but so perfect is
the mechanism - operated by a small
water-engine - that one may see the
vast concave swing around at the pressure of a child s hand. The floor works up
and down by a hydraulic arrangement
devised by Sir Howard Grubb; this
arrangement to a great extent takes the
place of an observer's chair. The minonster tube, fifty-seven feet long, and four
feet in diameter at the center, is mounted here on an iron pier thirty-eight feet
high. It is provided with "finders" of
six, four, and three inches in diameter.
When it is used for photography, an
additional single lens, 33 inches in diam
eter, is placed in front of the two lenses
that form the visual objective, and the
instrument is turned into a great camera.
The eye end is provided with mechanism
by which the observer as he sits can do
most of the handling necessary; with a
micrometer, and a frame to which spectroscopes, photometers, or enlarging
cameras, can be attached. The Observatory has besides the great equatorial
a I2-inch one, which occupies the 25-foot
dome at the north end of the platform, a
65-inch one, and a 4-inch "comet-seeker." Behind the main building is the
meridian circle house, which contains a
fine Repsold meridian circle and a 4-inch
transit and zenith telescope. The Observatory is besides well equipped with
spectroscopes, chronographs, clocks,
meteorological instruments, and complete earthquake apparatus. These
buildings, with a small photographic
laboratory, take up the leveled space.
On the side of the peak a large brick
dwelling-house for astronomers finds
place, reached by a bridge to its upper
story; and below, on the saddle between
two peaks (the mountain has three),
gathers quite a village of subsidiary cottages, workshops, etc. Beyond these is
a small dome for photographic work, the
gift, with its telescope, of Regent C. F.
Crocker.
When the late Mr. Newall, of England, presented his 25-inch refractor to
Cambridge, his son, who was to be its
astronomer, made a tour of the great
observatories of the world, and came all
the way to California to study the equipment of the Lick Observatory and the
mounting of the great telescope. The
Earl of Rosse visited and examined it
in I891; PIrofessor Auwers, of the Royal
Academy of Sciences of Berlin, and
Professor Vogel, Director of the Potsdam Observatory, are to do so soon, on
a tour of inspection with reference to a
great telescope for the Prussian government. The satisfaction the astronomers
feel in showing the Observatory and its
494
rNov.