{"id":481906,"date":"2025-12-31T07:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T07:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/481906\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T07:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T07:44:13","slug":"lick-observatory-damaged-by-110-mph-winds-as-storms-threaten-telescope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/481906\/","title":{"rendered":"Lick Observatory damaged by 110-mph winds as storms threaten telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winds exceeding 110 mph that tore across the top of Mount Hamilton early Christmas morning blasted a massive steel protective door off the iconic white dome<\/a> at Lick Observatory.<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, with back-to-back rainstorms bearing down on the Bay Area, officials this week are racing to seal the gaping hole and protect the historic Great Lick Refractor telescope beneath it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen or even heard of damage like this to a dome,\u201d said Lick Observatory site superintendent Jamey Eriksen.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Christmas Day storm that brought winds of 110 mph to the top of Mt Hamilton where the James Lick Observatory sits brought down the 60-foot crescent steel door that once covered half the dome’s vertical opening. The door landed onto an adjoining building where it broke windows and splintered attic beams. (Photo by Jamey Eriksen\/UCSC Lick Observatory)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The damage threatens one of the Bay Area\u2019s most significant scientific landmarks \u2014 a telescope that helped shape modern astronomy and still draws thousands of visitors each year to the mountaintop east of San Jose<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the Bay Area below, the dome sheltering the Great Refractor still appears intact. Up close, the damage is stark: a multi-ton, 60-foot crescent of steel that once covered half the dome\u2019s vertical opening is gone. It was one of two giant doors that slid open to reveal the night sky, then closed again to protect the telescope from the elements. Now it lies on the pavement beside the dome.<\/p>\n

Inside, an all-hands scramble by a skeleton holiday-season crew helped avert worse damage. Beneath the dome, the 57-foot-long Great Refractor telescope is wrapped in black plastic tarps from eyepiece to lens assembly. Above it, the fallen door has left a gap in the steel dome roughly 4 feet wide and 10 feet tall, with a larger opening below it covered only by a fabric windscreen.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Christmas Day storm that brought winds of 110 mph to the top of Mt Hamilton where the James Lick Observatory sits brought down the 60-foot crescent steel door that once covered half the dome’s vertical opening. The door landed onto an adjoining building where it broke windows and splintered attic beams. (Photo by Jamey Eriksen\/UCSC Lick Observatory)\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s first storm is expected to dump about an inch of rain atop Mount Hamilton on Wednesday evening into Thursday morning. A second storm could add another inch Friday and Saturday, National Weather Service meteorologist Dial Hoang said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cLenses, of course, don\u2019t like water,\u201d Lick astronomer Elinor Gates said. \u201cElectrical equipment doesn\u2019t like water.\u201d<\/p>\n

What a permanent fix will look like remains unclear. Even a temporary solution has proven difficult. Contractors suggested drilling into the surface of the dome \u2014 built in the 1880s \u2014 to fasten sheets of plywood or other materials over the opening. Eriksen rejected that approach, saying the solution will likely involve attaching large sheets of wood or siding to the dome\u2019s interior steel framework instead. Tarps may also be suspended beneath the opening to catch any rain that gets through.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not an easy solution,\u201d Eriksen said. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to get through, protect this amazing telescope and building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why the steel door fell off remains unclear. It initially crashed down onto an adjoining building, breaking windows and splintering attic beams, before a crane hoisted it and lowered it to the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery winter we get very strong winds of 90 to 100 miles per hour,\u201d Gates said. \u201cThis just seemed to have been a little more sustained than usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dome\u2019s aging hardware may have made it vulnerable, she added. Newer research telescopes at Lick appeared undamaged and will continue operating, according to the University of California, which owns and operates the observatory.<\/p>\n

When the damage was discovered Christmas morning, the roughly 10 staff members who had not left for the holidays rushed to the dome as rain fell and winds continued to buffet the peak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe set of skills up here is very good,\u201d Eriksen said. \u201cWe worked full blast Christmas and the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sensitive equipment and historical artifacts \u2014 including the Mills spectrograph used in the observatory\u2019s early days to measure the colors of light emitted by stars and galaxies \u2014 were wheeled out as rain blew inside and winds swirled through the opening.<\/p>\n

Gates and others mopped the circular wood-laminate floor surrounding the telescope, which sits atop elevators that raise it about 16 feet for observation. Others climbed a spiral staircase along the pedestal that supports the instrument. A 60-foot black tarp was cut in half, wrapped around each side of the telescope and secured with ratchet straps and minimal duct tape.<\/p>\n

\"LickLick Observatory astronomer Elinor Gates stands outside the damaged dome housing a 36-inch Lick Refractor telescope on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. A large metal shutter was torn off the dome during a recent wind storm. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had nothing falling inside the dome but water,\u201d Gates said \u2014 an outcome staff described as a relief under the circumstances. \u201cWe\u2019re reasonably certain the telescope is fine, and that is a huge relief because of course the telescope is the heart and soul of this place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Built between 1880 and 1888, the Great Refractor \u2014 with lenses 3 feet across \u2014 was once the largest lens-based telescope in the world. For the 100 years after it was hauled up Mount Hamilton by horses and mules, it ranked among astronomy\u2019s premier research instruments. It\u00a0gained worldwide fame in 1892 after astronomers used it to discover Jupiter\u2019s fifth moon, Amalthea, almost 300 years after Galileo identified the planet\u2019s first four.<\/p>\n

Later advances in mirror-based telescopes eventually eclipsed its scientific dominance.<\/p>\n

But, said Andrew Fraknoi, former head of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and an astronomy professor at the University of San Francisco, the telescope \u201cremains both a great teaching tool, and a historical place where generations of students were trained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still the second-largest refracting telescope in the world, it anchors Lick\u2019s popular visitor programs, which draw adults and children eager to peer through its eyepiece into distant galaxies.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt many observatories, you just showcase the science and you go to museums for the history,\u201d Fraknoi said. \u201cBut here, you have a combination of both the history and science.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA safety hard hat placed on a bust of James Lick inside the Lick Observatory on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. A large metal shutter was torn off the dome of the facility during a recent wind storm. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those public programs \u2014 including nighttime stargazing events, tours and educational programs \u2014 are now on hold indefinitely. The observatory\u2019s Main Building, which houses the Great Refractor dome, the smaller Nickel reflector dome and an exhibit and lecture space between them, has been red-tagged by the county as temporarily unusable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take many months,\u201d Gates said. \u201cThis is going to be a real blow to our public programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fraknoi noted that terrestrial telescopes like those at Lick remain vulnerable to extreme weather<\/a>. The site narrowly escaped destruction during a major wildfire<\/a> in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cFire, water, wind \u2014 all those things are issues,\u201d he said. \u201cIn part, that\u2019s why we have telescopes in space. But they can get hit by a chunk of rock, so no observatory is totally safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winds exceeding 110 mph that tore across the top of Mount Hamilton early Christmas morning blasted a massive…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":481907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[4514,15173,218197,276,16055,12463,2765,1370,728,50,15178,20909,2750,15180,21600,15182,159,15186,783,67,132,68,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-481906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-astronomy","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-bay-area-weather","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-editors-picks","14":"tag-keywee","15":"tag-latest-headlines","16":"tag-local-news","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-peninsula","19":"tag-pm-report","20":"tag-san-francisco","21":"tag-san-francisco-county","22":"tag-san-jose","23":"tag-santa-clara-county","24":"tag-science","25":"tag-south-bay","26":"tag-space","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-weather"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115813067801665182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}