The Shane 120" (3m) Telescope is listed as the premier research
instrument at Lick Observatory. It is named after astronomer C.
Donald Shane who lobbied for the funding for the telescope (from
the California legislature) and then was in charge of overseeing
the telescope's construction. It became operational in 1959.
The Shane Telescope is one of the instruments here at Lick
Observatory involved in the search for extrasolar planets. In
October 1995, Geoff Marcy of SFSU used the Shane Telescope to
confirm the announced discovery of 51 Pegasus, the first extrasolar
planet discovered in the history of astronomy. Three months later,
Marcy and colleague Paul Butler discovered new planets in both the
Virgo and Ursa Major constellations.
Of additional interest to geocachers is that the first director
of the observatory arranged to have Mt. Hamilton included as part
of the first transcontinental triangulation done by the US Geodetic
Survey, so that the structures here have been used as geodetic
reference points for well over a century now. Do your benchmark
research before you visit if you are interested. The oldest listing
in the datasheet for benchmark HS4865
is 1922, but in fact it was the first reference point established
here back in 1883!
Additional reading:
Please note that you must park at the bottom of the hill and
walk up the road a short distance to the cache and the Shane
Telescope dome, a task that was easily accomplished by my two-year
old.
The observatory requests that you please do NOT visit at night
as they need to minimize light and disruptions while working.
Congratulations to CTomGeo for the FTF on 9/18/05!
