#MyNonprofits: Be a Friend of Lick Observatory

Lick Observatory, August 24, 2019.

If you're healthy, employed, and traveled less than you wanted this summer, please make a donation to a nonprofit organization(s) that matters to you and share the donation link on social media with the hashtag #MyNonprofits - encouraging others to do the same. I hope you take part - thank you.

The most worried I got during the SCU Lightning Complex Fire - which was both yesterday and a million years ago at the same time - was when I heard Lick Observatory was threatened. The worst part was there wasn't a lot of information - and it stressed me out that I could no longer see it from my garage thirty miles away. When the smoke finally cleared I could see the flames had indeed burnt the hills all around it, but it still stood. Matt Simon at Wired wrote a great feature about Lick Observatory and the fire here.

My first trip to Lick Observatory was on a bike on April 7, 2019. After a summer car trip to one of their photography nights, I rode my Back to the Future-themed roadbike back to Lick Observatory on August 24th. Twenty-five miles into a thirty-mile bike trip, I learned the riding up there in August is a lot different from April. My 1.5 liter Camelbak went dry and I crawled the rest of the way to the relief of that stupendous vending machine (which, if it is ever retired and I am eccentric and wealthy by then, I want that thing in my workshop).

For now, my workshop can support the space for postcard I got from the vending machine and carried all the way down the mountain on my first visit.

I'm not sure when my next visit is (I think the road is still closed) but I know that Lick Observatory could use our help (they also need San Jose to not install electronic billboards and add light pollution but that's another conversation). 

Donate to Lick Observatory Here

The smoke is still hanging in the Bay Area air as you can see (that photo was this morning - look at what it looked like in May) With wind, time and some support we'll see clear skies again. Hope you donate to some nonprofits that matter to you w/ the hashtag #MyNonprofits. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding.