Goppee.] 150 [March. 



presented to the audience, with a brilliancy and power scarcely infe- 

 rior to that displayed by the most powerful telescopes. To this 

 fortunate invention were these lectures (' The Planetary and Stellar 

 Worlds'), no doubt, principally indebted for the interest which they 

 produced, and which occasioned them to be attended by a very large 

 number of the intelligent persons in the city. Encouraged by the large 

 audiences, which continued through two months to fill the lecture- 

 room, and still more, by the request to repeat the last lecture of the 

 course in one of the great churches of the city, I matured a plan for 

 the building of an observatory, which it was resolved should be pre- 

 sented to the audience at the close of the lecture, in case circum- 

 stances should favor. . . . 



*' Such is the history of the origin of the Cincinnati Astronomical 

 Society. . . . 



" Under its auspices, I started for New York, and on the 16th 

 of June, 1842, sailed for Liverpool. Having visited many of the 

 best appointed observatories both in England and on the Continent 

 (in each and every one of which I was received with a degree of 

 kindness and attention, for which I acknowledge the deepest obliga- 

 tions), and having been unsuccessful in finding, either in London or 

 Paris, an object-glass of the size re(iuired, I finally determined to 

 visit the city of Munich. The fame of the optical institute of the 

 celebrated Frauenhofer had even reached the banks of the Ohio, and 

 it was hoped that in that great manufactory, an instrument such as 

 the Society desired might be obtained, if not completed, at least in 

 such a state of forwardness as to permit it to be furnished at an early 

 day. In this 1 was not disappointed. An object-glass of nearly 

 twelve inches diameter, and of superior finish, was found in the 

 cabinet of M. Mertz, the successor of Frauenhofer. This glass had 

 been subjected to a severe trial in the tube of the great refractor of 

 the Munich Observatory, by Dr. Lament, and had been pronounced 

 of the highest quality. 



" To mount this glass would require about two years, at a cost of 

 nearly ten thousand dollars ; a sum considerably greater than that 

 appropriated at the time for an equatorial telescope. Having made 

 a conditional arrangement for this and other instruments, I returned 

 to Greenwich, England, where, at the invitation of Professor Airey, 

 the Astronomer Royal, I remained for some time to study. Having 

 accomplished the objects of my journey, I returned home, and ren- 

 dered a report to a very large meeting of the members of the Asso- 

 ciation, and other citizens of Cincinnati. . . . 



