Episode 1 of 2

First Light of the 91cm Telescope

When: January 3, 1888
Where: Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California
Part of: The 91-centimetre telescope at Lick Observatory first used

The 91-centimeter refractor at Lick Observatory saw first light on January 3, 1888, becoming the world's largest refracting telescope.

The telescope, built with a lens delivered in December 1886, achieved first light on January 3, 1888. It held the title of world's largest refractor until 1897. James Lick was buried under the telescope site in 1887.

Sources

Lick Observatory Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-09

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.