PlanetQuest is using some of the best telescopes at several observatories in the northern and southern hemispheres, including Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton above San Jose, California. This artist's rendition of Lick Observatory illustrates some of the discoveries made there—the nature of the spiral nebulae and the discovery of extrasolar giant planets.
|© Lynette Cook, http://extrasolar.spaceart.org
Lick Observatory was the first permanent mountaintop observatory, and astronomers using these telescopes have made history since its beginnings. The Shane 3-meter telescope was the one used by Marcy and Butler in the detection of some of the first extrasolar planets ever found.