University of California Observatories

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The University of California Observatories (UCO) is a multi-campus astronomical research unit of the University of California, with headquarters on the UC Santa Cruz campus. [1] UCO operates the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, and the technical labs at UC Santa Cruz and UCLA. UCO is also a managing partner of the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, and the center for the UC participation in the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) project.

Contents

UCO was founded in 1988 to recognize the expansion of responsibilities of the Lick Observatory Headquarters to include managing the UC share of the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

Leadership

The first UCO Director was Dr. Robert Kraft, who transitioned from his position as the Lick Observatory Director at the founding of UCO. Kraft was responsible for guiding the development of the UC role in the W.M. Keck Observatory and the partnership in Keck with Caltech. In 1991, Dr. Joe Miller became the second UCO Director and oversaw the successful completion of the two 10-meter Keck Telescopes and the initial UC Keck instruments. In 2005 Miller stepped down and Dr. Michael Bolte became the UCO interim Director. In 2006 Bolte became the UCO Director and served till 2012. Dr. Sandra Faber was Interim Director for 2013/2014, Dr. Claire Max Interim Director in 2015 and Dr. Claire Max became Director in 2016.

Instrumentation Program

A number of instruments and adaptive optics systems have been built at the UC Observatories labs in UC Santa Cruz and UCLA.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of California</span> Public university system in California

The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, the system is composed of its ten campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz, along with numerous research centers and academic centers abroad. The system is the state's land-grant university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Faber</span> American astrophysicist

Sandra Moore Faber is an American astrophysicist known for her research on the evolution of galaxies. She is the University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and works at the Lick Observatory. She has made discoveries linking the brightness of galaxies to the speed of stars within them and was the co-discoverer of the Faber–Jackson relation. Faber was also instrumental in designing the Keck telescopes in Hawaii.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. M. Keck Observatory</span> Astronomical observatory in Hawaii

The W. M. Keck Observatory is an astronomical observatory with two telescopes at an elevation of 4,145 meters (13,600 ft) near the summit of Mauna Kea in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Both telescopes have 10 m (33 ft) aperture primary mirrors, and, when completed in 1993 and 1996, they were the largest optical reflecting telescopes in the world. They have been the third and fourth largest since 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lick Observatory</span> Astronomical observatory in California

The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The observatory is managed by the University of California Observatories, with headquarters on the University of California, Santa Cruz campus, where its scientific staff moved in the mid-1960s. It is named after James Lick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heber Doust Curtis</span> American astronomer

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Leuschner Observatory, originally called the Students' Observatory, is an observatory jointly operated by the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. The observatory was built in 1886 on the Berkeley campus. For many years, it was directed by Armin Otto Leuschner, for whom the observatory was renamed in 1951. In 1965, it was relocated to its present home in Lafayette, California, approximately 10 miles (16 km) east of the Berkeley campus. In 2012, the physics and astronomy department of San Francisco State University became a partner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Lick telescope</span> Telescope in California, United States

The James Lick Telescope is a refracting telescope built in 1888. It has a lens, which is 91 centimetres (36 in) in diameter—a major achievement in its day. The instrument remains in operation and public viewing is allowed on a limited basis. Also called the "Great Lick Refractor" or simply "Lick Refractor", it was the largest refracting telescope in the world until 1897, and now ranks third, after the 40-inch refractor at the Yerkes Observatory and the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope. The telescope is located at the University of California's Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton at an elevation of 1,283 metres (4,209 ft) above sea level. The instrument is housed inside a dome that is powered by hydraulic systems that raise and lower the floor, rotate the dome and drive the clock mechanism to track the Earth's rotation. The original hydraulic arrangement still operates today, with the exception that the original wind-powered pumps that once filled the reservoirs have been replaced with electric pumps. James Lick is entombed below the floor of the observing room of the telescope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. Donald Shane telescope</span> 120-inch reflecting telescope

The C. Donald Shane telescope is a 120-inch (3.05-meter) reflecting telescope located at the Lick Observatory in San Jose, California. It was named after astronomer C. Donald Shane in 1978, who led the effort to acquire the necessary funds from the California Legislature, and who then oversaw the telescope's construction. It is the largest and most powerful telescope at the Lick Observatory, and was the second-largest optical telescope in the world when it was commissioned in 1959.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna L. Nickel telescope</span>

The Anna L. Nickel telescope is a 1-meter reflecting telescope located at Lick Observatory in the U.S. state of California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Automated Planet Finder</span> Robotic optical telescope searching for extrasolar planets

The Automated Planet Finder (APF) Telescope a.k.a. Rocky Planet Finder, is a fully robotic 2.4-meter optical telescope at Lick Observatory, situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose, California, USA. It is designed to search for extrasolar planets in the range of five to twenty times the mass of the Earth. The instrument will examine about 10 stars per night. Over the span of a decade, the telescope is expected to study 1,000 nearby stars for planets. Its estimated cost was $10 million. The total cost-to-completion of the APF project was $12.37 million. First light was originally scheduled for 2006, but delays in the construction of the major components of the telescope pushed this back to August 2013. It was commissioned in August 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nasmyth telescope</span> Three-mirror telescope design

The Nasmyth telescope, also called Nasmyth–Cassegrain or Cassegrain–Nasmyth, is a reflecting telescope developed by the Scottish inventor James Nasmyth. It is a modified form of a Cassegrain telescope, with light reflected sideways to an eyepiece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claire Ellen Max</span>

Claire Ellen Max is a Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and is affiliated with the Lick Observatory. She was the Director of the Center for Adaptive Optics at UCSC, 2007-2014. Max received the E.O. Lawrence Award in Physics.

Jerry Earl Nelson was an American astronomer known for his pioneering work designing segmented mirror telescopes, which led to him sharing the 2010 Kavli Prize for Astrophysics.

Steven Scott Vogt is an American astronomer of German descent whose main interest is the search for exoplanets.

The Lick–Carnegie Exoplanet Survey (LCES) is a search for exoplanets using the Keck I optical telescope of the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The survey is sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation. The survey comprises a decade of observations. The survey is led by Steven Vogt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at University of California at Santa Cruz, and R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution.

Harland Epps is an astronomer, known for designing effective optics for telescopes all around the world. He is also a professor at the University of California Observatories (UCO) / Lick Observatory, teaching astronomy and astrophysics.

Constance "Connie" Mary Rockosi is a professor and former department chair in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She earned her PhD in 2001 and helped design the camera for the telescope that was used as part of the initial Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). She also was in charge of the SDSS-III domain for the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE) project and is the primary investigator on SEGUE-2. Her focuses involve the study of the Milky Way galaxy, with a focus on the evolution that it took to reach its current state.

Michael Bolte is a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz. From 2005 - 2012 he was the Director of the University of California Observatories which operates Lick Observatory near San Jose California, co-manages the W.M. Keck Observatory, and leads the University of California participation in the Thirty-Meter Telescope Project. He was a member of the Board of Directors for the CARA Board that oversees the W.M. Keck Observatory from 2005 - 2013 and has been a Director on the Board of Directors for the Thirty-Meter Telescope International Observatory since 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Lotz</span> American astronomer

Jennifer Mae Lotz is an American astronomer who studies the shape and evolution of galaxies, including galaxy mergers. She works at the NOIRLab, a project of the National Science Foundation, as director of the Gemini Observatory.

References

  1. "University of California Observatories". University of California Observatories. Retrieved 2024-10-10.