In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Hawai’i Island is surrounded by thousands of miles of thermally stable seas. The 13,796-foot Maunakea summit has no nearby mountain ranges to roil the upper atmosphere. Few city lights pollute Hawaiian night skies, and for most of the year, the atmosphere above Maunakea is clear, calm and dry. This amazing site combined with the large size of the 10-meter primary mirrors, the Keck Observatory telescopes offer the greatest potential sensitivity and clarity available in optical and IR astronomy.
Since 1888, Lick has provided UC astronomers with access to world-leading optical-infrared observing equipment. Lick Observatory is owned and operated by the University of California. It is a major site in the University of California Observatories (UCO), which is responsible for its operations. Lick users range in age from undergraduates to the most senior and eminent astronomers in the University of California.
Lick also serves as UC’s chief testbed for developing new instruments and new technologies for optical astronomy. The technical facilities at UC Santa Cruz and UCLA upgrade existing instruments and develop new instruments for Lick Observatory.
Each year UCO provides funding for Faculty and Researchers with the primary goal to provide funding for instrumentation design, technology development, workshops, or other significant service activities that directly address the strategic and functional goals of UCO.
The call for proposals for the UCO Mini-Grant Program is made each August with deadlines in the end of October or early November. Please see the UCO Mini-grant Page.
University of Arizona Super-LOTIS project
On September 1, 2008, UCO became a partner with the University of Arizona in the Super-LOTIS project. Super-LOTIS is a 24-inch robotic telescope located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono O’odham Nation.