Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/18

6

under the appearance of very minute single stars no way distinguishable from others of a less interesting character, but by the test of careful and often repeated observations.

We may now declare the secondary purpose with which the former passage was quoted, and which has prompted also the relation of these details somewhat more fully than occasion perhaps seemed to warrant. In recurring to these early days after the lapse of a century, there can scarcely be a better motive than that of realising what was in the minds of these pioneers, and seeing what came of it. As one item alone in their programme, they did not hesitate to announce it as their ambition to survey the whole sky by co-operative endeavour down to the minutest star visible in the best telescopes, and that with the laborious methods of the time! Two-thirds of a century later, with the immensely powerful aid of photography at hand, their successors really embarked on this project, but have found it far beyond their resources. The sky has indeed been completely photographed, at Harvard and elsewhere, but this is only one step on the way to the scrutiny of each star—"careful and often repeated." The question forces itself on our attention whether our pioneers had really counted the cost; and we can only reply that, if they had not, they were only committing the same mistake which their successors, with far better information, repeated in 1887. They then initiated the project for the Astrographic Chart, which was to be completed in a dozen years, though to-day, after nearly three times that period, it is yet far from accomplishment. Of the enthusiasts who adopted so great a programme in 1820, probably Sir John Herschel had the best means of knowing what it involved; and we may perhaps read into his attempted deletion of the sentence some, misgivings whether ambition might not overreach itself. Possibly the cataloguing of every star might be achieved, by sharing out the work: but what about "careful and often repeated observations"? Perhaps that had better go out? However, the other enthusiasts were too many for him and it was ultimately retained.

We see then that the infant Society did not merely "hitch its waggon to a star," but would be content with nothing less than the whole universe of stars down to the minutest. Fortunately they were nevertheless men who realised well enough that whatever their ultimate aims might be, their beginnings must be eminently sober and practical. They started with the reform of the Nautical Almanac; and read papers to one another about micrometers and refraction; or arranged skeleton forms for