The Great 36 inch Refractor at Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton by Ron Hipschman

This is the Great 36-inch Refractor at Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton. This telescope was completed in 1888 with a $700,000 donation by James Lick and was, at the time, the largest telescope in the world. James Lick is entombed at the base of the telescope. A fitting monument to him.

The observatory has graciously allowed the Exploratorium to use this wonderful instrument for several webcasts. Here we are webcasting the impact of NASA's LCROSS spacecraft into the moon on October 9th, 2009.

To watch the LCROSS webcast, go Here:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/webcasts/archive.php?searchtext=lcross&cmd=search&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

For more information about this telescope, see the Observatory website at http://www.ucolick.org/public/telescopes/36-inch.html

GigaPan Stitcher version 1.0.0027 (Macintosh)
Panorama size: 103 megapixels (14187 x 7269 pixels)
Input images: 280 (20 columns by 14 rows)
Field of view: 143.2 degrees wide by 73.4 degrees high (top=39.4, bottom=-33.9)
Settings:
All default settings
Original image properties:
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot G9
Image size: 4000x3000 (12.0 megapixels)
Capture time: 2009-10-09 00:34:32 - 2009-10-09 01:04:39
Aperture: f/4.8
Exposure time: 0.3
ISO: 800
Focal length (35mm equiv.): 207.7 mm
Digital zoom: off
White balance: Automatic
Exposure mode: Manual
Horizontal overlap: 30.2 to 47.1 percent
Vertical overlap: 31.6 to 46.5 percent
Computer stats: 6144 MB RAM, 4 CPUs
Total time 25:32 (0:05 per picture)
Alignment: 7:36, Projection: 2:42, Blending: 15:13