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Susie Champney Clark (1856-ND) http://tinyurl.com/SCClark

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Mammoth Dome

From The Round Trip from the Hub to the Golden Gate, 1890. Read Online Download PDF

Reader: Jessica Teeter

California boasts many "firsts," including the establishment of the first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory atop Mt. Hamilton near San Jose.

The Lick Observatory was founded in 1888 and soon attracted curious visitors, including Susie Champney Clark, a Boston matron touring the country by railroad.

Saturday evening is set apart each week as the only opportunity for the public to gaze through the great 36-inch telescope, hitherto the largest in the world. . . .To have reception night happen on the first quarter of the moon, (the most favorable time for observation) and under a perfectly clear sky was our rare good fortune. Passing from the vestibule, we entered the large dome with a feeling of awe, as if we stood in the presence of royalty, for towering far above us was the monster steel tube with its giant eye poised aloft, scanning searchingly the mysteries of unfathomed space. . . .

"Full Moon from Lick Observatory," photograph by NASA, 1999. Larger.

Wonderful was it to see the mammoth dome revolve with such ease under the direction of the presiding genii of the place, who with skillful touch also directed the telescope toward our satellite which held that evening high court in heaven. And how did it look? Well, very like its photograph, with much the unnatural whiteness and flowery appearance of plaster-of-paris, honeycombed as it is with volcanic craters. We, of course, improved this auspicious occasion to look intently for the man in the moon, but it must have been his night out, for we failed to discover him.

Susie Champney Clark's railroad travelogue The Round Trip from the Hub to the Golden Gate appeared in 1890.