Lick Observatory
Led by Eugien, a professor of UC Berkeley- Astronomy Department, I was very delighted to join a student group to visit Lick Observatory in 9-23-2012. That night through the telescope, we had seen : Moon crater, Neptune and its moon Titan, M15 globular cluster, NGC7009(Saturn Nebular), Aquila binary star (?) and T lyrae (the red color star).
Lick Observatory is located on 4200′ Mt. Hamilton in the Diablo Range, east of San Jose, California. Largest among its nine research-grade telescopes is the Shane 3-meter Reflector, active since 1960. The 3-meter is in operation every clear night of the year, used by many different astronomers from within the UC system for a variety of projects ranging from observations of our solar system to distant galaxies. UC astronomers, using the telescopes on Mt. Hamilton have contributed to virtually every area of optical and infrared astronomy.
James Lick – patron of Lick Observatory (1796 ~1876)
In 1887 James Lick’s body was buried under the future site of the telescope, with a brass tablet bearing the inscription “Here lies the body of James Lick. In 1888, Lick Observatory was completed and given to the University of California as the Lick Astronomical Department. The Observatory was the first permanently staffed mountain top observatory in the world and housed the largest refracting telescope in the world at that time. Finally, the body of James Lick lies beneath the refractor telescope he funded, and his will stipulates that fresh flowers be on his grave — always.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lick_Refracting_Telescope