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The Christmas storm that pummeled the Bay Area also badly damaged the South Bay’s Lick Observatory, causing the worst destruction the beloved scientific institution has experienced in more than a century.
The powerful winter storm tore across Mount Hamilton in the early hours of Dec. 25, with steady winds reaching 100 mph and gusting up to 114 mph.
The force ripped half the shutter off the dome of Lick Observatory’s Great Refractor — a 140-year-old telescope that was once the most powerful in the world and remains the heart of the observatory’s public outreach…