Introduction.

very heart of his intense brightness, strange groups of spots, by the motions of which we are led to the discovery of the Solar rotation. Travelling to the Moon by the help of our wondrous glass, we find in the varied appearance of its surface a charming object of study— the lunar mountains, valleys, and craters being watched under the rays of the rising and setting sun.

In short, the firmament of heaven, with all its wondrous detail of suns, star-groups, planets, and nebulae, is spread before the student of astronomy as an open page of the great book of nature, each gleaming point and blazing sun sending, from the depths of space, messages of light to earth'; it is the Telescope which unfolds to us the mysteries of this revealed page, and therein we read of the power and wisdom of God. The glories of the skies are in part visible to us, but untold wonders are hidden from our eyes; it is the province of the Telescope, leading us through the infinite regions of space, to unveil these marvels, of which we had hitherto no conception, to our admiring gaze.

It is but natural that an observer, while contemplating the glorious orbs which by their radiance fill the midnight sky with splendour, should desire to possess some means of viewing more closely and minutely the beauties of those worlds which circle around him. The brilliant planet, the erratic comet, the changing moon, all fill his mind with a desire to investigate further the structure of the heavens. The records of other observers are eagerly perused, and the student rises from the interesting works of Herschel, or the delightful volumes of Proctor, with an ardent desire to view the beautiful objects described therein, and to possess a telescope by means of which they may be observed.

The telescopes of the ancients, unwieldy and imperfect though they were, yet revealed to the astronomers of the time much information as to the heavenly bodies, and afforded conclusive confirmation of the true theory of the universe, while those systems which did not accord with observed facts were rudely shaken to their downfall. Each advancing age has improved upon the primitive glass of Galileo and his followers, and in the present day the finest mechanism and accurate workmanship are pressed into the service of Astronomy ; and telescopes, beside which that of Galileo would seem clumsy and imperfect indeed, are to be found in the possession of every amateur student, while our observatories contain the finest and most accurate instruments that modem science can produce.

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