Monday, July 30th 2007
“Are we there yet?” was the primary thought running through the production crew’s heads as we headed up Mount Hamilton in San Jose on our way to the Lick Observatory. After a long morning drive from Chico to Berkeley to pick up Donald Goldsmith, one of our project’s Co-Writers, we were on the road for another two hours before we reached the summit of Mount Hamilton. We risked our lives as we encountered an armed standoff on the other side of the freeway while driving through the Oakland area. Apparently, someone thought it was smart to stop the traffic on the side of the road the police dispute was on, but nobody thought of stopping our side while police firearms were pointed in our direction.
Forget Mulhulland Drive…. someone had heard the crazy rumor that there were over 360 curves on the windy highway road up the mountain. I’m not sure if it’s true, but I gave up counting around 73 curves about 3 minutes ascent up the mountain. There were just too many to count. Halfway up the mountain, we stopped to take an establishing shot of the Observatory from across the valley. As we stepped from our vehicles, we stumbled upon an abandoned car about 30 feet down into the gulley below. Our Audio Engineer, Bruce Coykendall, made his way down into the steep gully, trying his best to avoid slipping on the piles of loose leaves just to see if anyone was hurt or trapped. What a hero! Thankfully, nobody was found in the car, but we still called the case into the police who later towed the car from the gully while we were up on the mountain.
As we reached the summit, all of us were amazed by the view. Even with the city smog below, the view of San Jose was spectacular from the front entrance of the Lick Observatory. Lick’s Observatory was built near the turn of the century nearly 110 years ago. The smallest dome, the first stop on our whirlwind tour of the Observatory, was built in 1881 and boy was it in good condition. The building is on a small hill right down the main road from the visitor’s center of the Observatory. This dome was home to the observatory’s 12-inch telescope which jumpstarted the Observatory’s scientific research nearly seven years before the Observatory’s famous Great Refractor ever saw its first light. Within the small dome, we were met with a very old telescope, which from some of our video footage, doesn’t resemble a telescope from many angles. We had fun with our guide, Remington Stone, who showed us the retro-mechanics that turn-of-the-century Observatories used. We then moved back over to the Observatory’s main building where we were allowed to see the Great Refractor Telescope housed in the larger dome attached to the building. The dome was beautiful! With hardwood floors that elevated up and down about 12 feet so that observers could easily reach the hallway to the main building as well as the telescope’s eyepiece. The most interesting fact about this dome in my opinion was the fact that James Lick himself is buried in a coffin below the telescope’s pier. When we arrived, flowers were lying next to a placard in the tomb, which had written upon it James Lick’s name as well as his birth date, and the day he passed on. It was an honor to see the sight.
As sunset came upon us, we took footage and still shots while beautiful light entered the dome. At dark, our guide was kind enough to allow us the opportunity to look through the Great Refractor at Jupiter. Remington described how the colors seen through the lens are called chromatic aberrations and that the amount of colors/aberrations is determined by the number of lenses in a refracting telescope. This has been a key issue in developing large telescopes which will be discussed through other parts of our production. The evening concluded with a few shots of the gorgeous rising moon and a few moments look over the city of San Jose.