lute
certainty of all astronomical investigation is thereby impaired,
what I have to say will be in the interest of truth; and I have no
fear that our science will not stand the shock of the revelation.
Of our leading astronomical observers of the present day--of such
men as Burnham and Barnard--it may be safely said that when they
see a thing it is there. But this cannot always be said of every
eminent observer, and here is a most striking example of this fact.

When the telescope was approaching completion I wrote to the head of
one of the greatest European observatories, possessing one of the best
telescopes of the time, that the first thing I should attempt with
the telescope would be the discovery of the companion of Procyon.
This first magnitude star, which may be well seen in the winter
evenings above Orion, had been found to move in an exceedingly small
orbit, one too small to be detected except through the most refined
observations of modern precision. The same thing had been found in
the case of Sirius, and had been traced to the action of a minute
companion revolving around it, which was discovered by the Clarks
a dozen years before. There could be no doubt that the motion of
Procyon was due to the same cause, but no one had ever seen the
planet that produced it, though its direction from the star at any
time could be estimated.

Now, it happened that my European friend, as was very natural, had
frequently looked for this object without seeing it. Whether my
letter set him to looking again, or whether he did not receive
it until a later day, I do not know. What is certain is that,
in the course of the summer, he published the discovery of the
long-looked-for companion, supplemented by an excellent series of
observations upon it, made in March and April.

Of course I was a little disappointed that the honor of first
finding this object did not belong to our own telescope. Still I was
naturally very curious to see it. So, on the very first night on
which the telescope could be used, I sat up until midnight to take
a look at Procyon, not doubting that, with the greater power of our
telescope, it would be seen at the first glance. To my great concern,
nothing of the sort was visible. But the night was far from good,
the air being somewhat thick with moisture, which gave objects seen
through it a blurred appearance; so I had to await a better night and
more favorable conditions. Better nights came an