Shrouded in snow on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, lies the world"s first permanently occupied mountaintop observatory. Constructed between 1876 and 1887, the Lick Observatory has been the site of significant discoveries, including several of Jupiter"s moons and other planetary systems. It"s named for American real-estate entrepreneur James Lick, who set aside $700,000 for the University of California to build a facility that would be home to a "telescope superior to and more powerful than any telescope yet made."
Lick Observatory
Today in History
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Ardez, Graubunden, Switzerland
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A duckling swimming in a water meadow, Suffolk, England
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50 years of Earth Day
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Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, England
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Diving into the underwater nirvana
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Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles, Bavaria, Germany
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Arches National Park, Utah
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Winterpret on ice
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Let’s talk fossils
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Happy World Laughter Day
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Thomas Edison s bright idea
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Here we mark the price of freedom
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World Lizard Day
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Honoring those who served
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The monsoon arrives in the desert
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Sandhill cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico
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In search of a ‘great’ pumpkin
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Sedona, Arizona
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Kinder Scout, Peak District National Park, England
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Spiegelgracht canal in Amsterdam, Netherlands
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The owl that loved football
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Earth at Perihelion
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Can you see the family resemblance?
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The Cordillera de la Sal in the Cordillera Domeyko Range of Chile
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Bonsai Rock, Lake Tahoe, Nevada
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Happy New Years Eve!
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Welcome to the Ring of Fire
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There’s a dog in there somewhere
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Road-trip worthy attraction in the heartland
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No, it s not a leaf. Happy Look-alike Day
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