The Author’s Telescope: a 10-inch With-Browning Reflector.]
_Method._—Nearly all the most successful observers have been men of method. The work they took in hand has been followed persistently and with certain definite ends in view. They recognized that there should be a purpose in every observation. Some amateurs take an incredible amount of pains to look up an object for the simple satisfaction of seeing it. But seeing an object is not observing it. The mere view counts for nothing from a scientific standpoint, though it may doubtless afford some satisfaction to the person obtaining it. A practical astronomer, with his own credit at stake and the interests of the science at heart, will require something more. In observing a comet he will either fix its position by careful measurement with reference to stars near, or critically examine its physical peculiarities, or perhaps both. In securing these data he will have accomplished useful work, which may quite possibly have an enduring value. In other branches of observation his aim will be similar, namely to acquire new materials with regard to place or to physical phenomena, according to the nature of the research upon which he happens to be engaged. Such results as he gathers are neatly tabulated in a form convenient for after comparisons. There have been instances, we know, where sheer carelessness has resulted in the loss of important discoveries. Lalande must have found Neptune (and mathematical astronomy would have been robbed of its greatest triumph) half a century before it was identified in Galle’s telescope, but his want of care enabled it to elude him just when he was hovering on the very verge of its discovery. Numerous other instances might be mentioned. Failure may either arise from imperfect or inaccurate records, from a want of discrimination, from neglect in tracing an apparent discordance to its true source, or from hesitation. I may be pardoned for mentioning a case within my own experience. On July 11, 1881, just before daylight, I stood contemplating Auriga, and the idea occurred to me to sweep the region with my comet eyepiece, but I hesitated, thinking the prospect not sufficiently inviting. Three nights later Schæberle at Ann Arbor, U.S.A., discovered a bright telescopic comet in Auriga! Before sunrise on October 4 of the same year I had been observing Jupiter, and again hesitated as to the utility of comet-seeking, but, remembering the little episode in my past experience, I instantly set to work, and at almost the first sweep alighted upon a suspicious object which afterwards proved itself a comet of short period. These facts teach one to value his opportunities. They cannot be lightly neglected, coming as they do all too rarely. The observer should never hesitate. He must endeavour to at least effect a little whenever an occasion offers; for it is just that little which may yield a marked success—greater, perhaps, than months of arduous labour may achieve at another time.