The issue of saving the Lick Observatory has come up at past Regents meetings on which we have posted. Plans to close it were withdrawn as a result of faculty protests.
Google has contributed $1 million to help support Lick Observatory, the financially needy astronomy haven atop Mount Hamilton. While other donors have helped buy high-end instruments, Google's
gift is different because it will pay day-to-day operating expenses of
the historic observatory, perched on a 4,200-foot summit above San Jose
and the only observatory in the UC system where students can design and
build their own astronomy projects. "Google is proud to support their efforts to bring hands-on
astronomical experiences to students and the public," said Chris DiBona,
director of open source for Google, in a prepared statement. The gift -- $500,000 a year, for two years -- is the first of what
astronomers hope will be other private gifts to support the teaching
and research resource. Lick astronomers have discovered asteroids, moons
of Jupiter and planets outside our solar system...
Full story at http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_27492839/google-gives-1-million-historic-lick-observatory
No comments:
Post a Comment