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

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

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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 265 - This would increase the brightness of the stellar images, say eight-fold, and we should be able then to photograph all the stars to the tenth and eleventh magnitude, inclusive. There is nothing, then, so extravagant in predicting a future application of photography to stellar astronomy on a most magnificent scale. It is, even at this moment, simply a question of finding one or two hundred thousand dollars to make the telescope with and to keep up the experiments. What more admirable method can be...
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 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 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 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.
Page 228 - In the formation of a scientific and, as it were, a moral standard a few names will be remembered among us, and no one will stand higher than that of Henry. His wise, broad, and generous policy and his high personal ideals were of immense service to his colleagues and to the country. The establishment of a national observatory in Washington was proposed by John Quincy Adams in...
Page 220 - Norton (class of 1831) became professor at New Haven, and wrote a very useful text-book of astronomy in 1839; and the list could be much extended. The excellent training in mathematics at West Point (chiefly in French methods) early made itself felt throughout the whole country. The mathematical text-books of Peirce, of Harvard, and of Chauvenet, of the Naval Academy, brought the latest learning of Europe to American students.
Page 158 - At present the chief object of attention must be to improve the sensitiveness of the plates, to which, I am assured by high authorities in chemistry, there is scarcely any limit to be put in point of theory. Suppose we are able finally to obtain pictures of seventh magnitude stars.
Page 264 - It is reasonable to suppose that on some lofty mountain and in a purer atmosphere we might, with the same telescope, include the eighth magnitude. To increase the size of the telescope threefold in aperture is a practicable thing if the money can be found. This would increase the brightness of the stellar images, say eightfold, and we should be able then to photograph all the stars to the tenth and eleventh magnitude, inclusive. There is nothing then so extravagant in predicting a future application...

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