Georges Rayet

“ It is not sufficient that an observatory should be provided with numerous or powerful instruments: it is further necessary that these instruments should be at, the service of accomplished astronomers earnest in the pursuit of their studies, and having no other desire than to achieve a name in science. In all these respects the observatories of Italy leave the most satisfactory impression upon the visitor. ”

“ Of these observatories, only that of Naples has a considerable number of assistants, and in no one is the work done under rigid regulations; each astronomer devotes himself, according to his predilections, to a special subject; emulation and the desire to make a name in science produce a continuity of effort the result of which has in the last few years been manifest in various brilliant discoveries. ”

“ Since the total solar eclipse of 1868, a great number of astronomers have devoted themselves to the daily observations of these protuberances, in order to study their distribution on the solar circumference, and their relations with solar spots. Among these astronomers are Lockyer, Secchi, Rayet, Respighi, Tacchini, and Young, but it is in Italy that these researches are most vigorously prosecuted, and, in order to avoid the interruptions in a series which cloudy days may occasion, the observatories of Palermo, Rome, and Padua, prosecute these observations in common. ”