Memorials of William Cranch Bond: Director of the Harvard College Observatory, 1840-1859, and of His Son George Phillips Bond, Director ... 1859-1865

Front Cover
C.A. Murdock & Company, 1897 - 296 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 225 - Perhaps the time is already come, when it ought to be, and will be, something else; when the sluggard intellect of this continent will look from under its iron lids, and fill the postponed expectation of the world with something better than the exertions of mechanical skill.
Page 54 - And though we do all this, we must remember that we may give all our goods to feed the poor...
Page 225 - Prince told him that he had a crew of twelve men, every one of whom could take and work a lunar observation as well, for all practical purposes, as Sir Isaac Newton himself, were he alive.
Page 263 - The field for experiment is too vast to be at once occupied, even if we were provided with unlimited means. But the results already obtained in the disconnected attempts we have thus far been enabled to make are of the highest interest, and suggest possibilities in the future which one can scarcely trust himself to speculate upon.
Page 157 - On a fine night the amount of work which can be accomplished, with an entire exemption from the trouble, vexation and fatigue which seldom fail to attend upon ordinary observations, is astonishing. The plates once secured, can be laid by for future study by daylight and at leisure. The record is there, with no room for doubt or mistakes as to its fidelity.
Page 217 - Promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the increase and diffusion of knowledge...
Page 253 - The evening of the 20th was cloudy. On the 21st the new satellite was found to have approached the primary, and it moved sensibly among the stars while under observation. Similar observations were repeated on the nights of the 22d and 23d. Its orbit is exterior to that of Titan. It is less bright than either of the two inner satellites discovered by Sir William Herschel. " Respectfully,
Page 157 - The plates once secured, can be laid by for future study by daylight and at leisure. The record is there, with no room for doubt or mistakes as to its fidelity. As yet, however, we obtain images only from stars to the sixth magnitude, inclusive. To be of essential service to astronomy, it is indispensable that great improvements be yet made, and these, I feel sure, will not be accomplished without a deal of experimenting.
Page 159 - I have forgotten to allude to two important features in stellar photography — one is that the. intensity and size of the images taken in connection with the length of time during which the plate has been exposed measures the relative magnitudes of the stars. The other point is, that the measurements of distances and angles of position of the double stars from the plates, we have ascertained by many trials on our earliest impressions, to be as exact as the best micrometric work.

Bibliographic information