Edmund Neville Neison

“ There are many who judge a telescope by its size alone, who compute its excellence by aid of a two-foot rule, and a knowledge of its cost in pounds. With them a telescope with a metallic speculum weighing four tons and measuring six feet in diameter, with a tube fifty feet long, and costing a thousand pounds, ought to give so much light, have such and such separating power, and show this or that object. It is true with small telescopes a great deal may be done in this way, but experienced observers know that the real power of a telescope an only be ascertained by a study of what it has done. ”

“ Will it be used to increase our knowledge of astronomy, or will it be allowed to rest in idleness like so many other fine instruments? It is to be trusted, and it may be safely anticipated, that the former will be its fate. It will wear out, not rust out. There is much in astronomy which this grand telescope can do. It can be used for observing the faint and difficultly visible satellites of Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. All these pressingly want observing and measuring, and there are few telescopes of sufficient power and excellence to do the work wanted. ”

“ There is yet another field in which this new telescope may reap great advantages for astronomy. It is suspected that more than one of the stars, those distant suns, may be attended by opaque, dull planets. Mathematical analysis has already pointed to the existence of these attendants. It remains for the telescope to discover them. If the new Ealing reflector be really of the very highest excellence, it will be with that instrument we ought to look for these attending planets, these members of a foreign solar system. ”

“ By means of a wheel on your left, you can raise or lower yourself at pleasure, and observe with the telescope in any position. The whole observatory only requires moving about once in two hours, and can be moved with ease by one hand. ”

“ From its enormous size, over twice as large and ten times as heavy as any speculum which had ever been manufactured before, it was necessary to construct new and more powerful machinery and even a new building. ”