Io6 IN STARRY REALMS. 



paid to Messrs. Alvan Clark a sum exceeding 10,000. 

 The length of the tube in which this pair of lenses 

 had to be mounted was adapted for a focus of fifty-six 

 feet two inches. On the 1st June, 1888, the celebrated 

 Lick Observatory was formally pronounced ready for 

 work, and handed over to the charge of the regents of the 

 University of California. 



I take these particulars from the first volume of the 

 publications of the Lick Observatory. The charges of the 

 future publications will be generously provided by the 

 State of California, while the United States has pre- 

 sented the site. With consummate astronomical equip- 

 ment, with a staff of practical astronomers that cannot 

 be surpassed in the world, we may confidently hope that 

 the Lick Observatory will fulfil the generous intention 

 of its founder ; indeed, we have already in some exqui- 

 site photographs and in other ways received earnest of 

 its success. 



I have entered thus fully into the account of the Lick 

 Observatory, partly on account of its novelty and its 

 importance, but also because in one aspect of its work 

 it suitably illustrates the title at the head of this 

 chapter. Professor Campbell, the accomplished astro- 

 nomer who presides over the Lick Observatory, has 

 arranged that the resources of the great telescopes shall, 

 under suitable regulations, be available to those visitors 

 who may spend an evening at the Lick Observatory. 



I propose to mention some of the objects which a visitor 

 to an astronomical observatory should specially wish to 

 see. He will first of all desire to learn by actual examina- 

 tion something of those marvellous instruments by which 



