University of California Observatories

UCO Mission

The University of California Observatories (UCO) is a Multi-Campus Research Unit of the University of California, with headquarters at the UC Santa Cruz campus. UCO operates on behalf of the astronomers at all ten UC campuses and is comprised of extensive technical facilities, a business office, telescope and support facilities at the Lick Observatory on Mt Hamilton and a staff of astronomers. View full UCO Mission Statement.

UCO Operates

Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton, conducting both research and public programs
UCO Technical Labs, located at UCSC, designing and fabricating state-of-the-art instrumentation for observatories throughout the world

UCO Collaborates

As managing partner of W.M. Keck Observatory
On large-scale multi-institutional projects such as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO)

UCO News & Events

Tickets are now on sale for Lick Observatory's Music of the Spheres summer concert series. Enjoy a variety of musical entertainment & talks by Lick astronomers. NEW this year: view through TWO telescopes: the historic 36-inch Refractor and the modern Nickel Reflector (except July 26).

Buy Your Tickets Now: Two concerts already sold out! [More]

ATTENTION KECK OBSERVERS: Keck has instituted a new proposal procedure. Please see Keck Proposal Instructions webpage.

UCO Newsletter from Director Mike Bolte

UCO Astronomers at Keck Observatory featured in Smithsonian Magazine: Cover story for April 2008 highlights research of UCLA astronomers Andrea Ghez and Mark Morris and their observations at Keck. [More]

Planet Hunters Discover Record-Breaking 5th Planet Orbiting Star Beyond our Solar System [More]

Keck Adaptive Optics Pinpoints Two Supermassive Black Holes in Colliding Galaxies [More] [Images]

Contacts & Credits

Please email webeditor@ucolick.org before reusing photos from this website.

Background image: Hubble Ultra Deep Field, courtesy of STScI & NASA.

Lick Observatory: This year the Music of the Spheres concert series offers public viewing through two telescopes. Visitors are welcome to enter both domes of the main Observatory building, and compare the historic refracting 36-inch telescope with the modern reflecting Nickel telescope (pictured above). NOTE: Due to observing schedule, Nickel telescope is not available at July 26 concert.

The Nickel telescope is unique in its economy of design. This "spare parts telescope" was built with funds bequeathed by San Francisco seamstress Anna Nickel using "in house" labor and a "refashioned" mirror. It occupies a dome designed for a much smaller telescope, so required extremely precise engineering. [More]

Awards & Accolades

UCSC professor and CfAO Director Claire Max elected to National Academy of Sciences. for her many contributions to plasma physics, astronomy, and astronomical instrumentation. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a scientist or engineer. [More]

UCSC professor Sandra Faber was elected to 2007 AAAS Fellows. for contributions to understanding of galaxies, dark matter, and the formation of large-scale structure in the universe, and for scientific leadership in the community [More]

UCB professor & LBNL astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter was awarded the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize. Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt of Australian National University share this prize for their roles in the seminal discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. [More]

Douglas Lin was named founding director of the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA) at Peking University in Beijing, China. Lin will keep his faculty position at UCSC while he helps launch the new institute, one of two scientific institutes established in China last year with funding from the Kavli Foundation. [More]

Adriane Steinacker was awarded a UCSC Excellence in Teaching Award for 2006-7. The award review process includes student nominations, appraisal of the student evaluations, and contributions to the academic life at UCSC. Student evaluations cite Adriane's devotion to astronomy, to teaching, and to students as individuals.