As a volunteer at Lick Observatory for their Summer Visitor's Program, I had the chance of a back-stage tour of Lick. I took my kids and we were able to breathe the same air as the Shane Telescope, the 120-inch reflector. Built in 1959, it was the second largest telescope in the world. It now ranks well below that lofty place but is still quite possibly one of the coolest-looking telescopes in the world.
And, the astronomers have certainly not stood still admiring its good looks. Lick is the site of the world's highest resolution spectrograph, used to discover extra-solar planets, and a wicked green laser for adaptive optics research. The mountain also is home to the Katzman automated telescope that discovers about two supernovae a week (and emails the staff when it thinks it has got something). A sweet 40-inch yoke-mounted Cassegrain (made of essentially "spare parts" in 1979), the Crossley 36-inch reflector (mentioned elsewhere in this august blog), and the world's second largest refractor -- the 36-inch f/19 monster!
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