The Story of the Heavens

Early Astronomical Observations--The Observatory of Tycho Brahe--The Pupil of the Eye--Vision of Faint Objects--The Telescope--The Object-Glass--Advantages of Large Telescopes--The Equatorial--The Observatory--The Power of a Telescope--Reflecting Telescopes--Lord Rosse's Great Reflector at Parsonstown--How the mighty Telescope is used--Instruments of Precision--The Meridian Circle--The Spider Lines--Delicacy of pointing a Telescope--Precautions necessary in making Observations--The Ideal Instrument and the Practical One--The Elimination of Error--Greenwich Observatory--The ordinary Opera-Glass as an Astronomical Instrument--The Great Bear--Counting the Stars in the Constellation--How to become an Observer.

The earliest rudiments of the Astronomical Observatory are as little known as the earliest discoveries in astronomy itself. Probably the first application of instrumental observation to the heavenly bodies consisted in the simple operation of measuring the shadow of a post cast by the sun at noonday.