n the southbay residents may have noticed those small white domes a top the valleys hills it's important that it remains open and accessible to folks in the bay area it's nice to have that in just a days drive but what those small white domes have captured are anything but small from small moons of jupiter to multiple planetary systems and even helping the apollo 11 mission accurately measure the distance of earth and moon we'll look at the importance lick observatory still has in an area now known as silicon valley

high on top of mt hamilton is a place where many scientific breakthroughs were born. silicon valley residents see it from a distance but few take that trip up the winding road to see it in person brenda norrie begins our covergage by showing the rich history of lick observatory. the james lick observatory has been a bay area icon since the 19th century. the first permanent mountain top observatory in the world. james lick was a wealthy man owning vast parts of the bay area during the gold rush. with his health declining and desire to perpetuate his family name, one sparked idea led to one of the most historic

decisions of his life-building an observatory. (wandry) you build a telescope for example that was bigger than anybody else's telescope, it would be able to see things nobody else's could see and therefore it would be making discoveries. and discoveries land your name in the history books. lick's friend who was president of the california academy of sciences in san francisco is credited with intriguing the millionaire with discussions about planets, rings of saturn, and our moon's mountains. in his will, lick provided for construction of the 36 inch great lick refractor. (wandry) it was worded such that build a telescope more powerful than any that exists. so that if whenever his will be executed, whether it be right away after he died or years after he died, they would look at that time at what the largest telescope in the world was and build one bigger than it. this refractor became the largest telescope in the world

when it was completed in 1888. the best instrumentation made it superior to any telescope of the time and soon found the fifth moon of jupiter. the first four moons that would have been known about jupiter had been discovered by a gentle- man named galileo in 1610. so from 1610 until 1892, all the generations of human beings during that time period had grown up aware that jupiter had four moons. and suddenly this new telescope that's four years old and with the best optics in the world and someone says no wait there's another moon and blew everybody's expectations out of the water and showed what a fantastic optical instrument this is. discoveries encouraged tourist visits from all over the world, despite the 5-6 hour arduous trip up the mountain. even today, visitors are in awe

of seeing the dome and telescope and the road once traveled by horse pulled carriages is now used as a joy ride for classic cars and cyclists. (craig) good workout and obviously the view is spectacular up here. but the roads have definitely improved in recent times. (zachary) part of the agreement to build the observatory james lick wanted the city to...i'll the money up for the observatory you guys put up money for the road which shall be first class in every respect. having driven the road, a lot of people would take issue with that but it is a lot quicker than the 6 hour one lane dirt road carriage ride that it use to be. now it's actually paved and two lanes the whole way. that's actually comparitively recent. the road has invited visitors along the way but even more intriguing are the programs lick offers to the community.

(gates) we also have additional programs during the summer time where you can buy tickets and come up and look through our historic 36 inch refractor and our 40 inch nickel telescope and hear science lectures, and it's designed for the public.you don't need to know anything about astronomy.you'll have a wonderful time and look through some really fabulous telescopes and at some amazing objects. the lick observatory is accessible to the silicon valley which is perfect for introducing the sciences to future engineers doctors, environmentalists and astronomers. lick never got to see his famous creation but he is buried underneath the great historic contraption. (norrie) the lick observatory invites the community to music of the spheres and the summer visitors program. visit their website at u-c-o-lick dot org and connect with them on facebook and twitter. when we come back brenda will show us why silicon valley scientists

and engineers rely on lick observatory more than ever today. stay with us silicon valley boasts changing the world with its innovations. lick observatory did just that when it had the first most advanced telescope in the 19th century we'll look further in why keeping the doors open to this observatory is relevant to inspiring people advancing technology and furthering creativity brenda norrie continues our coverage keeping the doors open to lick observatory is a passionate pursuit for some silicon valley scientists and visitors.

(craig) i've understand it was just on the verge of closing so i was aware of that situation very glad to hear that it's not. if nothing else just because of the destination and obviously if you look around there's a lot of people that like to come up here it would be a sad thing if that wasn't available to everybody. tech company google aims on making the world's information accessible, so by donating a one million dollar gift to the observatory,it helped do just that. (wandry) silicon valley's the hub of innovation and the technologies that get developed here are gonna be things that these kids are going to grow up with,technologies that are gonna be applied in space, it's almost gonna be second nature the observatory's historical scientific breakthroughs are continually available to visitors and residents. astronomy excites young learners

to explore using their own eyes and questions but also it creates a drive toward other sciences. (garcia) it's very appealing to look at the skies and think about what's up there. but what's down here was in danger of closing the past few years. the observatory depends on funding from the university of california and donors. google's million dollar gift came just in time. (fehre) it's very important that it remain open because it's so accessible to folks in the bay area, relatively accessible. the drive up here is a bit lengthy but certainly nice to have that within a day's drive. educational experience of lick is not reserved just for kids. (ybarra) got to take a tour of the observatory which also took (ybarra) got to take a tour of the observatory which also took an hour but was very educational when we come back we'll be joined by a panel of renowned scientists discussing the relevance of astronomy today

welcome back to this edition of equal time.today we're going to look at the lick observatory and the importance of it to our society.let's meet our guests. hi i'm aaron romanowsky i'm a professor of physics and astronomy at san jose state university. i'm alex filippenko.i'm a professor of astronomy at the university of california, berkeley. i'm richard vo. grad student at san francisco state university. i'm beth johnson. i'm a physics undergrad here at san jose state university. i'm brenda norrie and i'm the student correspondant for this story. thank you all for being here

today. thank you for coming down to be a part of this. i think it's important that we've gone back to the time where we're thinking about what's out there. and we want to care about it and we want to get there and we want to try to understand what's going to be there when we get there. what's taking us so long to get back to this? this is really the study of our origins.and people have this innate curiosity about the universe.but for some reason there hasn't been enough emphasis of it in schools. and what the press now does with the hubble telescope and other observatories is really great. they're bringing the cosmos back to the kids and i like to say that astronomy is the gateway science.it gets kids interested in science and technology. then they go on in fields that are more immediately useful to society. wouldn't you love to have ience teachers like that all the time? get you excited and make you want to go--but talk to me aaron about the notion of students actually grasping the importance of this. well i think it's a fundamental human interest in the universe and the world around us.when you grow up you wanna explore the universe,explore the world

around you,and seeing the night sky if you can get out to a dark area when in san jose if you're immediately in the city you don't see the night sky but if you get a little bit farther outside the city,it just strikes you immediately the immense beauty of the universe and i think people naturally want to explore that and find out more. what's amazing is through all our technology today we've made huge strides in seeing what's out there that our ancestors never knew about. and beth you share that thought? absolutely.i've been into astronomy since i was a very little kid when my foster brother gave me a telescope. my dad set it up,i looked up at saturn and i couldn't believe that what i was seeing was saturn with the rings and everything.and it was just so amazing to me that i've had that my whole life.and so i've instilled that in my child as his first drawings were of planets along his wall and he did them all in order,so it's really important for me to keep that going. so you see parents that is important.sometimes decoration will open up the mind you never know.i remember growing up in the '60s richard with the mercury program and the gemini program, apollo, landing on the

moon, and it seemed like wow what a quest to be going after in the future.i'm glad to see young people are more interested in this. i don't really see things like that everyday.i normally see the new technologies coming out or the new fun fad just mainly lies in entertainment. i really focus on just what's really out there because as a physicist,as someone that cares in science,you have to be curious about what's going on and out there.and me every night i just love looking at the night sky and seeing the lick observatory up there is just another sign that i can actually grasp what you can really see-- but you can appreciate the cosmos in a very unique way. yes,because the next thing you see after the night sky is how can you really see further in the night sky and the next thing you really wanna look at is a telescope.and seeing the lick

observatory is like a giant telescope and what i saw every day growing up in san jose. same here.pretty iconic for bay area,you grow up seeing those little white domes up there and you get up there and it's just really big. those are not mushrooms growing out of mount hamilton. those are telescope domes with real telescopes that have made real discoveries and we love using them and we also love sharing our discoveries with the general public. and when you get the information back,we wonder how long does it take you to discover something new? as opposed to reaffirm something you already knew? it really depends on the project sometimes you get this eureka moment,when you see something that's clearly new.it's a little bit like my view of saturn when i was a kid.but more often than not it takes years of analysis or at least many months of analysis.for example discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe which we did in the late 1990s took years of analysis. but it's worth it because of

the inventions and all the possibilities that come after. astronomy in particular is really fun.there's a balance between long projects that take a long time and really fast discoveries.in fact richard was at the telescope when he discovered a supernova. it was a eureka moment. we looked at a past picture and we looked at a the new picture and was like 'something is not there.' seeing through a telescope right away live time it was just amazing.ay live time and the fact that exploding stars,the supernova, are what allowed us to finally evolve the heavy elements in your body carbon in your cells, oxygen that you breathe, the calcium in your bones, the iron in your red blood cells. were created through nuclear reactions in stars and expelled by these exploding stars.so if it were not for the fact that some stars explode,we wouldn't be here

discussing this love this guy! talk to us more brenda.you had this idea to do this story.why? a lot of kids growing up now lost that curiosity and becoming an astronaut.a lot of them want to be singers or actors which is fine,but when i was growing up, i remember seeing space camp being advertised on tv and i'm like 'i want to do that!' you don't really see that now. and with all the technology coming in,i think it's a great time to start being curious and expanding on that. when's the best time to enjoy the lick observatory from the public's perspective? we have a visiting hours throughout the year but in the summers especially, we have friday and saturday night viewing programs where you get to hear a lecture by an astronomer and look through the great historic 36 inch refractor and on some weekends even hear a concert.we have concert

performances as part of the music of the spheres program. it's not while you're looking through the telescope.you've listened to the concert and then you go and listen to a lecture or view through the telescope but it's sort of music of the spheres,an all-in-one package. and it's a great thing for the public to enjoy.so those are friday and saturday nights, the visitors program and the music of the spheres program during the summers. very good. and beth,when you get students up there or friends or community people, what do they come back telling you? they're alwasy amazed by the view and the history. when i went i got the whole spiel on the history and the telescope and the observatory and the area and it really puts you in touch with the history of the valley even, because that observatory is so important and lick is so important to what developed here to take friends and have them go up and get to see these huge telescopes,the opportunity to see something like that is so rare.they always come back almost overwhelmed with it and

i've seen a few friends have to take time to process what theyve seen.to get to look through the 36 inch and see saturn in even more detail.the big comment i always hear is that it looks like it's painted on it. it's unbelievable. this was the biggest telescope in the world when it was completed in 1888. it was the result of this generous gift by james lick of 700 thousand dollars in 1875 which as a fraction of the gdp would be equivalent to 1.2 billion today--wow-- yeah, that is a big donation that's a hell of a science project. it was really in a sense the birth of big science, certainly in california.one could argue even in the whole u.s. but look what has changed and as you said the history. tell us more brenda, what else have you found out about this? i was gonna say just driving up there, the windy road, that alone is history. i believe the new road is over what was the road that was taken to build it

and so you see pictures of them ith these trucks and you're like 'how did they drive that turn?' well it was horse and carriage yeah, exactly. it's not very steep but it's windy because it follows the contours of the mountain. and i believe it was actually in lick's will that it had to be accessible by road easily-easily accessible by road. yes, a first class road that's what you've got there ith its 365 plus or minus turns. one for every day of the year it's worth a trip but when youre out there richard, what do you get out of it? one thing i get out there is basically the view of the bay area.that's one thing i really enjoy.another thing is just seeing how much more clear the night sky is up there than it is where i am in south bay san jose where it's yellow lights every where,which is the street lights but just seeing the night sky is just beautiful. absolutely.and how do you open up science to young people today

in your area of study, aaron? it's great,from the youngest age you can enjoy astronomy in particular, as you mentioned alex, sort of a gateway drug to science.if i present to some kindergarten classes then the students are extremely engaged and they're very bright and they have ways of engaging with the material,thinking about the universe,they have ideas about it and thats what we like to see them continue doing their whole lives.having this question of the universe and being able to engage with it and astronomy is a good place to start for that. i had a teacher in college who once described it as it's a catalyst for creative thinking but also critical thinking. critical thinking is very important to develop those skills among the voting public. they've got to be able to evaluate things told to them and figure out if it makes sense does this sound kind of strange? is this logical-- yeah, so you know kids get turned on by what we discover in the cosmos and then they pursue fields in science and technology. they become computer scientists and engineers and applied

physicists, some of them may ecome astrophysicists but that's not really the point. we only need a small supply to replenish us. it's really getting the kids interested in science and technology overall and that's something astronomy does and we're proud to open up lick observatory to the general public.both our discoveries in the hallway exhibits and viewing from the telescope and hearing lectures,that kind of thing. i remember growing up listening to walter cronkite on cbs talking about the moon landing. brenda, do you have anything in our world today,social media traditional media that inspires young people to think about this i think the pluto mission right now is pretty inspirational. we're about to close up view of pluto yeah, new horizons mission. and we lived through pluto because you know, disney character. but for all the third graders out there, there were good reasons to demote it from being

a genuine planet to a dwarf planet. the first of its kind in a sense, right, we promoted it to being the first dwarf planet. my third grader in fact actually argues with me that pluto should be a planet. he is actually very passionate maybe because i'm young, i still believe pluto needs to be a planet. i'm old and i believe it's a planet myself. but how do we get the next step which is let's have more interest in space travel, how to develop rockets, opportunities to get out there? how do we take the next step using lick, using other opportunities in science? i think we're gonna be there we're just having a pause right now with the space shuttle program. when i was a kid, i was very much into the space shuttle program. it was a huge inspiration for me in pursuing a reer in science.we're in a pause right now,we're developing the new program.hopefully when that comes back on board that's going to be a new step and inspiration at places like lick observatory in particular at lick we really encourage students to

design their own projects and also to build new instruments that's the kind of thing that can lead to advances in space exploration later on as well. new technology right now is is advanced. working a telescope a giant telescope at lick or even bigger and newer, is really difficult to use. it's not your average computer that you just type in.having lick helps us get fond of those tools at an early level. most students cannot use the hubble space telescope because the time is so precious and they are just beginning to learn so hey make more mistakes than i do giving them the opportunity to their hands dirty with research

real data and data analysis and machines at lick is a really important part of their training we give them the chance to be the principle investigator on projects. and that's what builds independent leaders how about the math factor? we have people interested in this but aren't good at math. they can be armchair astronomers i might not be good at biology but i still enjoy reading about great advances being made in the biomedical sciences and genetics you can read about the discoveries because astronomy is made so accessible to the general public. does it help to have administration in washington be pushing this more? there are a number of astronomy and science type programs now like the universe

show i'm on quite a bit and neil degrasse tyson's cosmos e is much more attention of this stuff given to the public now. are young people simply no aware of the open qualitites of the mind by studying science? when i was in school, science science was one of those things that puzzled me, excited me but made me curious. my son definitely has that iosity. he's kinda alone in that science has become a rarity in their system, but they did start with astronomy and as you said is the gateway and it is inspiring them

i recently obtained a very generous donation from google to support research at lick they understand that the future of their company depends on to some degree on getting today's youth excited about science and technology, so they want more people to go up to lick and i'm hoping other major

high tech companies in silicon valley will follow suit but kudos to google. it's a good idea that lick mingles music with astronomy because it gets those interested in music to check it out we call it steam now, instead of stem for science,technology art and music and math find a way to get a j in there for journalism this has been wonderful i hope people go check this out and we thank you for joining us for this edition of equaltime

>> people are enormously creative, they're enormously surprising, they're not utilitarian and follow rules and so forth and so on. and the internet is the first time when we can hear all of them at once, and i think that for the next ten or twenty years we're going to see more surprises. ♪ >> man: tonight we explore the ideas of google chairman eric schmidt and his colleague jared cohen in their book, "the new digital age." they write in compelling and personal terms about the impact of technology today and the implications for tomorrow.