Amador ledger., 1900-09-28
MT. HAMILTON.
Professor Geo. A. Gordon Describes His
Visit to Lick Observatory.

Visit to Lick Observatory.
To The Editor of Amador LEDGER:
After the adjournment of the
Convention of Superintendents, which
was the cause of my trip to the city OF
San Jose, 1 improved the opportunity
thus occasioned and visited several 10.
calities of interest, one of which was
Mt. Hamilton upon whose summit the
Lick Observatory is located.
The trip to the mountain is one that
a person must take in order that he
may fully appreciate its grandeur.
When one thinks of ascending to the
crest of that mountain he is inclined to
entertain misgivings as to his safety In
making such journey, but any fear
he may have upon him is soon dissipat.
ed by the appearance of the broad and
splendidly kept road that rises so
gradually for the entire distance Of
twenty-eight miles.
This grade was constructed at the
expense of the county of Santa Clara
for something above $4,000 The In.
cline, or grade, does not exceed six de-
grees at any one point and loaded
team can trot upon it any where.
The observer views road above road
tapping back and forth upon the noun
lain side as he ascends and finally, after
a pleasant ride of five and one half
nours, he alights from his carriage st
the door OF the Lick Observatory.
! The Observatory is a magnificent
structure erected at an expense Gnclud-
ing its entire equipmenD OF about $780,.
900. The staff, consisting of eight at
taches, resides upon the mountain in
buildings apart from the Observatory.
There is also school near the dwell.
Ings for the accommodation of the
children OF the attaches and the cnil.
dren living in the immediate vicinity.
vacation, cOula not MAKE the scnool
an Official visit.
Whatever may be the shortcomings
OF Amaaor county, sne Is worthy OF ~.
Oeem for tnls particular feature, that
ner sons ana uaug gnuers, wnen you
meet them abroad, Invariably greet
another AmauorlJe with cordlality
LnaJ Is indeed 10 Do appreciated. Why
sir! IN the darkness OF the night, upon
mountain top, manly fellow sp.
preached me and said; "DO you know
me George?" l replied "Yes, know
you Robert, excuse me, Professor
Robert Aitken." An occurrence Of
this kind tends to make visitor feel
pretty much at home. Robert Aitken
is jackson boy and is now one OF the
astronomers located at Mt. Hamilton.
AS, at this altitude, he is lifted above
the clouds, so do his aspirations for
knowledge aim at the pinnacle of fame.
May his hope be grati6ed.
| The features of interest at the OBJ.
servatory are too numerous to speak
of in detail. The telescopes are the
grandest.
The following extract from letter
written by an Amador county school
girl who accompanied me upon the trip
to the Observatory, gives partial dc.
scription of the telescope observatory:
''Professor Aitken conducted us
through the building and kindly ex.
planned everything we were capable Of
understanding. The largest telescope
is sixty feet long with thirty-six lens.
There is but one larger telescope In the
world and that is Yerkes and has q
lens of forty inches. There are larger
refracting telescopes. He explained the
different machinery and moved the
telescope all around for US, lowered the
floor and revolved the dome by means
of water power. The water is kept In
an adjoining reservoir on peak 200
feet above the level OF the mountain.
At short distance from the eyeglsss
of the large telescope are placed two
spider threads. They keep the spider
TO spin the web from which the thread
is taken with tweezers and each end Of
the thread is then fastened to receive
slips of paper wherewith they are then
| placed into the telescope for the pur.
pose of measuring the distances between
stars to the minuteness of 1-32 l-l00
of an inch. Professor Aitken then
took us into the smaller dome where
| through the twelve inch lens We saw
| venus crossing the Meridian. 1t looked
| ike half crescent. This Is considered
the finest twelve inch lens in the world.
The lenses are cleaned only once every
Two years. Great care must be exercls.
| cd In this work. First every parLicls
Of dust is removed from the lens oy
means OF d camel hair brush, Lnen
The lens is washed lioerally WHO dl5tlu.
cd water applied oy lneans OF cneese
| cloth that mas Deem thoroughly boiled
70 remove every particle of dust. The
lens is then dried with cheese clotn pre-
pared as above. We returned to Ban
Jose, arriving at six in the evening""
The contrivance for determining the
velocity OF the wind, that for determin-
| ing the earthquake belt, that for re-
cording the time that an event, such as
an eclipse takes place, that for taking
measurements to the minuteness of l-32
Of 1-100 of an inch, etc., etc., each has
its own wonderful power to interest