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Lick Observatory, the historic telescope beneath the majestic white steel dome atop Mount Hamilton, escaped narrowly by consuming Wednesday as firefighters worked overnight to repel flames in the pedestrians above east San Jose.
UC Observatories, which operates the observatory, posted dramatic ‘time-lapse’ video of the flames on Twitter on Thursday.
“So very grateful to CALFire for the incredible efforts to save the community at Lick,” the University of California Observatories said Thursday.
So very grateful to CALFire for the incredible efforts to save the community at Lick. Horrible fide-time-lapse video made by the Advisory Council of UCO Director Volunteer Loren Kinczel. We will update as we learn about all the historical and scientific structures on Mt. Hamilton. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/A37ULF5jHY
– UC Observatories (@UCObservatories) August 20, 2020
But the 132-year-old observatory is not yet safe. UC Observatories said firefighters set up a command post near the observatory’s main building with half a dozen engines in place.
“That’s good news,” said UC Observatories, but accidentally added, “Based on latest information, the fire is owned by Observatory and is moving fast.”
Fire crews rescued most of the structures atop the observatory’s Kepler Peak, UC said Thursday, but one low-lying shelter was destroyed and others suffered smoke and water damage.
The California Department of State Forest Management and Fire Protection said Thursday that the lightning sparked series of wildfires in the region they call the SCU Lightning Complex burned more than 137,000 acres in Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, and is only 5% contained. It threatens 6,200 structures.
Scientists have studied the skies for more than a century at Lick, the first observatory for mountain range with one of the largest refractor telescopes on Earth.
The observatory was completed in 1888 and was bankrolled by James Lick, an entrepreneur of the Gold Rush era, whose real estate in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Lake Tahoe and even Catalina Island had made him one of the richest men in California. .
It has nine telescopes, although only four are used regularly: the Shane reflector, its workhorse; the 1-meter nickel; the automated KAIT, which searches for supernovae; and the 36-inch Giant Refractor, the 57-foot-long, 25,000-pound showpiece that makes it one of the largest of its kind in the world.
Lick, buried under the observatory, died nearly a decade before the completion of the Giant Refractor. On June 1, 1888, the observatory celebrated the 125th anniversary of its official mission to the University of California.
A passageway at the observatory was built to allow astronomers to remove and store valuable 36-inch refractor telescopic lenses in case of fire.
Superintendent Lick Observatory, Kostas Chloros, said firefighters were the difference between the facility that remains historic and is becoming historic.
“There were a lot of close conversations,” Chloros said, as a molten trash lay on the floor as a reminder of the intense heat that came through the site. “The way this fire behaved, how it went and how fast, it was indescribable.”
Chloros shared his ‘extreme gratitude’ for the firefighters who spared the observatory from a devastating emergency.
Captain Gene Parks of Cal Fire, a native of South Bay, said the area to personally protect the observatory felt.
‘This is my area. It’s under my watch, and I do not let anything happen, ‘he said.
But Parks also warned that given the fire conditions, there is no time to become comfortable.
“It’s not over yet,” he said, pointing to a nearby canyon with visible flames and heavy smoke.
Lick Observatory is surrounded by a raging fire and my heart is broken. https://t.co/v5tSLclPg9 #lickobservatory pic.twitter.com/XoeGHlET0V
– lucy west (@LucyWestStudios) August 20, 2020
