By Lisa M. Krieger lkrieger@mercurynews.com

SAN JOSE -- The future of astronomical research at the iconic Lick Observatory is in peril, as the University of California threatens to cut funding and perhaps even convert most of its once-cutting-edge Mount Hamilton telescopes into museum relics.

Now, alongside the search for new celestial frontiers, scientists must hunt for a new source of outside funding to keep the 125-year-old observatory from going dark.

"It's heartbreaking. We're collapsing like a house of cards," said Steve Vogt, who leads a team of planet-hunting astronomers at UC-Santa Cruz.

Perched on the 4,200-foot summit of Mount Hamilton east of San Jose, the UC-run observatory is home to six telescopes, which are increasingly upstaged by newer and larger telescopes in other parts of the world. When constructed in 1888, Lick was the first permanently occupied mountaintop observatory in the world; for almost a decade, its original telescope was the largest ever built.

It has made major contributions to the field of astronomy, discovering asteroids, moons of Jupiter and planets outside our solar system.

If it loses funding, Lick's sensitive new $10 million Automated Planet Finder, a decade in production, would no longer scan the skies for our galactic neighbors, bringing us closer to answering the profound question: Are we alone?

The observatory's surveys of supernovae and the future of astronomy education at UC-Santa Cruz are also under threat, because the campus relies on Lick to support its nationally-renowned academic program.

"UC wants it off the books," Vogt said. "They're shutting the door and turning out the lights."

The plan is based on the findings of two review committees -- one at UC, the second made up of independent experts -- that two other Hawaii-based sites, W.M. Keck Observatory and the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), deserve higher priority at a time of cost-cutting.

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Lick Observatory's astronomy research could end