Just a few months ago it looked like the University of California’s Lick Observatory was on a death march. Now the 127-year-old observatory is staying open, and one of its spectrographs is getting a major upgrade. On 29 October 2014 the university wrote to University of California Observatories (UCO) interim director Claire Max that it would no longer require that the observatory “begin a glide path to self-supporting status … or be managed by an entity other than UCO.” The letter, which reversed the university’s decision of just over a year earlier, followed a furor in the UC astronomy community and state and federal legislatures as well as changes in university management.
Located on Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose, California, Lick has facilities that include a 3-meter telescope with adaptive optics, a 2.4-meter automated planet finder, and a host of smaller telescopes. The observatory serves UC faculty and students...
