Matthew Fontaine Maury

“ Many of the little events that are passing round us in silence are to constitute the fillings-up of history. They are the under-currents, the eddies, and the drifts in the tide of Times, by the effects of which the main current is made to pass along down to posterity with the proper force, clearness and beauty. ”

“ The Catalogue contemplates accurate drawings of the Nebulae and the leaving by this means to posterity, the clue to that knowledge, with regard to this class of objects, which we ourselves would be so glad to have.
Under the space-penetrating powers of the telescope many of these objects are resolved into stars. Among the clusters are to be seen at one view and in a single spot not larger than Ahab’s Cloud, aggregations of stars, far exceeding in number all that the unaided eye of man ever beheld in the azure vault above.
God “by his spirit hath garnished the heavens.” ”

“ When the sky is clear, there is every night, and all night long, an eye at every telescope in the Observatory, working for this Catalogue; and that no star shall escape us the part of the heavens that if gone over tonight is re-explored to-morrow night by fresh observers with different instruments. ”

“ In the book of nature we see God’s own-handwriting; and there is not to be found throughout his handiwork, a single fact, word or syllable which does not relate to the destiny of man. We may not understand its bearings or comprehend its import, but it is not because it is without meaning, — it is because we are not wise enough to read the interpretation thereof. ”

“ Some have the graceful convolutions of the smoke curl, — some are spiral, — some are rent in pieces as though they were curdling into more dense aggregations of matter; these leave black rents in the sky, through which stars are often seen to peep out of the darkness apparently at an immense distance beyond. ”

“ On taking charge of the National Observatory, my first duty after getting the instruments in proper position and adjustment, was to train a corps of observers. As soon as this was done, I began to cast about for that plan of operations, which should be the most useful to the world and creditable to the country.
The Sun and Moon, the planets, and certain fixed stars of the larger magnitudes, called fundamental stars, have been the subjects of observation ever since practical Astronomy assumed the character of an exact science. ”

“ And there, instead of having the alternations of light and darkness as we have here, it may be supposed that their days and nights alternate with blue, green, red or yellow light, according to the color of the sun which may be in the ascendant.
There may be some ready to say, — though I am sure there are none such here, — of what good is it to us to know that there may be suns among the stars, and days of different hues, in the remote regions of space! I hold myself to be a utilitarian of the strictest sense. But I regard every fact that man can gather from the physical world to be of value. ”

“ We have received more than any generation ever received of its ancestors, for the generation that preceded us had its own treasures of knowledge added to all that it received from the world before, to and down to us. ”

“ Thus, by the fidelity of that observer, and the means of his catalogue, we are enabled to know at once what otherwise we should have had to wait fifty years to learn. But for that observation of Lalande astronomers would have had to wait half a century for data to enable them to determine the orbit of that planet as accurately as Mr. Walker, formerly an assistant at the National Observatory, has done in consequence of the discovery there.
Perhaps the most exquisitely beautiful objects in the heavens, are the double stars, with their contrast of colors. ”

“ And it has recently been shown with such verisimilitude as to throw the onus of proof upon those who deny the conclusion — that the sun with its splendid retinue of planets, satellites, and comets is in motion about a center inconceivably remote; that though we are moving about it at a rate of many millions of miles in a year, the period is so immense, the distance from the center to the circumference of the orbit so great, as to require myriads and myriads of ages to complete a revolution. ”

“ When the American people in their national character understand any thing they never do it by halves. Their National Observatory is furnished with a most splendid set of instruments. There is but one observatory in the world superior to it in this respect. ”

“ Our ancestors gathered facts, and recorded observations, which in our hands have become clues guiding to knowledge, or leading discovery. Shall we do less? He who has the privilege of interrogating nature in the name of society, and yet fails to preserve her answers, is regarded by the scientific world as one who betrays his trust, and thereby wrongs the living and defrauds posterity.
In 1795 Lalande saw a star, and entered it upon his catalogue. In 1847 it was discovered at the Washington Observatory that the star was the planet Neptune. ”

“ It is a part of the plan of the American Catalogue accurately to determine distance and angle of position of the double stars, — to record magnitude, color, right ascension and declination, and so enable those who come after us hundreds or thousands of years hence to compare their observations with ours and to determine there from the orbits and Anni Magni of these wonderful suns and curious systems. ”

“ Therefore, let us interrogate nature diligently for her laws, and for facts which are the expounders of her laws, feeling assured that the course of Man is upward and onward, and that if we ourselves can make nothing of her answers, there may be DANIELS coming after us, who will have the wisdom to read them aright, be they in characters never so strange and incomprehensible to us. ”

“ But it is not until one of these gorgeous clusters is seen, through the telescope, that one can feel in its full force the prophet’s saying —— “The host of Heaven cannot be numbered.”
“Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades ?” ”

“ You will embrace in your Catalogue all stars even of the smallest magnitude which your instruments can accurately observe. You will, when convenient, make duplicate observations of stars for each Catalogue; and when time permits, you will determine with precision, by the Meridian instruments, the position of the principal stars in each pair or multiple of stars. ”

“ The plan finally adopted for the Washington Catalogue, was to penetrate regularly and systematically with some one of our powerful telescopes, every point of space in the visible heavens, for the purpose of not only determing accurately the position of every star, cluster and nebula, that the instruments can reach, but for the purpose of also recording magnitude, and color with an angle of position and distance of binary stars, and of making drawings and giving descriptions of all clusters and nebulæ. ”

“ By means of catalogues it has been discovered that the stars in a certain quarter of the heavens are getting optically closer and closer together, while those in an opposite quarter, are apparently separating from each other and are getting wider apart, precisely in the same way as though we were receding from the one set and approaching the other. ”