Construction
The fabrication of the two-element achromatic objective lens, the largest lens ever made at the time, caused years of delay. The famous large telescope maker Alvan Clark was in charge of the optical design. He gave the contract for casting the high quality optical glass blanks, of a size never before attempted, to the firm of Charles Feil in Paris. One of the huge glass disks broke during shipping, and making a replacement was delayed. Finally, after 18 failed attempts, the lens was finished, transported safely across country, and on December 31, 1888, was carefully installed in the telescope tube. The builders had to wait for three days for a break in the clouds to test it. On the evening of January 3 the telescope saw "first light" — and they found that the instrument couldn't be focused. An error in the estimate of the lens' focal length caused the tube to be built too long. A hacksaw was procured, the great tube was unceremoniously cut back to the proper length, and the star Aldebaran came into focus.
Read more about this topic: James Lick Telescope
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