Airy commenced his work
so energetically that in the next year after his appointment he was
able to publish the first volume of "Cambridge Astronomical
Observations," notwithstanding that every part of the work, from the
making of observations to the revising of the proof-sheets, had to be
done by himself.
It may here be remarked that these early volumes of the publications
of the Cambridge Observatory contained the first exposition of those
systematic methods of astronomical work which Airy afterwards
developed to such a great extent at Greenwich, and which have been
subsequently adopted in many other places. No more profitable
instruction for the astronomical beginner can be found than that
which can be had by the study of these volumes, in which the Plumian
Professor has laid down with admirable clearness the true principles
on which meridian work should be conducted.
[PLATE: SIR GEORGE AIRY.
From a Photograph by Mr. E.P. Adams, Greenwich.]
Airy gradually added to the instruments with which the observatory
was originally equipped. A mural circle was mounted in 1832, and in
the same year a small equatorial was erected by Jones. This was made
use of by Airy in a well-known series of observations of Jupiter's
fourth satellite for the determination of the mass of the great
planet.
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