Nickel Telescope

The Shane 120-inch telescope was an extremely popular research telescope when built, and Lick astronomers wanted to build another reflector to offload some of the demand to a smaller telescope. When San Francisco seamstress Anna L. Nickel bequeathed a large part of her estate to the Lick Observatory, the funds were used to build a 40-inch (1-m) reflecting telescope. While it was estimated that such a telescope would cost $750,000, and $50,000 had been donated, Lick Observatory ingenuity and adeptness at recycling kept the total spent on parts at only $28,000. Dubbed by some the "spare parts telescope," the Nickel is built around a 40-inch mirror originally acquired for the Crossley telescope, and utilized many other on-hand parts. By building "in-house" at the UCO/Lick Observatory Technical Facilities Shops at UCSC, an estimated $400,000 of labor was provided as a part of regular shop operations. The Nickel telescope was completed in 1979.

Because the Nickel 40-inch reflector was to occupy the smaller dome of the main building, which had been designed to house the much smaller Clark 12-inch reflector, careful engineering was necessary. The height of the dome and the size of the slit were carefully considered. A simple mounting of minimal size and weight was designed and built. The movement of the dome, which keeps the slit directly above the telescope, was computer-controlled.

In another economizing effort, the Nickel telescope was designed with the same optical characteristics as the Cassegrain focus of the Shane telescope. Thus the two telescopes can share the same instruments. The Nickel can also be used to test instruments for the larger Shane telescope.

The 40-inch Nickel reflector is used in astronomical projects that require less light-gathering power than the 120-inch Shane reflector. University of California graduate students often use the Nickel, which is operated from a computerized control room nearby. The public may both look through the Nickel telescope and see the control room at the Lick Observatory Summer Visitors Program.

OSETI Instruments

OSETI (Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) researchers use the Nickel telescope to search for very brief bursts of optical light, which might be an attempt by an extraterrestrial civilization to indicate their presence to us.

Using a sensitive and very fast triple photometer (light or photon measuring instrument) located at the Cassegrain focus of the Nickel telescope Lick Observatory OSETI researchers predominantly target nearby stars with a presumed lifetime long enough to have allowed evolution of complex life. This photometer is pictured at the Cassegrain focus (lower end) of the telescope in the photo by Mt. Hamilton resident Laurie Hatch above.

Use of a triple photometer eliminates many false positive signals. The larger the photon pulse, the greater the chance it was not an accidental coincidence, but rather an intentional extraterrestrial signal. If the photon event is seen in only one or two detectors, researchers ignore it as a false positive. Only rarely will researchers see an accidental (false positive) photon flux large enough to trigger all three detectors within the same one-billionth of a second. Thus, when observed, a signal in all three detectorsis more likely to be an intentional one, which merits the time and effort necessary to make a confirming observation.

For more information, please go to  http://seti.ucolick.org/optical/

CCD Camera

A CCD Camera is located at the Cassegrain focus of the Nickel telescope. It operates similarly to the Shane telescope's Prime Focus Camera (PFCam), using CCDs to record light in the near-ultraviolet to near-infrared range, including the entire visible light range. Because the Cassegrain focus of Nickel telescope has less light-gathering ability than the prime focus of the Shane telescope, this camera is used to photograph brighter objects than the Prime Focus Camera.

Nickel Spectrograph

A standard single-beam spectrograph is located at Cassegrain focus of the Nickel telescope. It operates similarly to the Kast spectrograph on the Shane telescope, but with considerably less sensitivity, as the Kast uses two simultaneous beams to produce two specialized spectra that are then combined. The Nickel spectrograph produces useful spectra from brighter celestial objects.

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