The Board of Visitors recommended it to the Admiralty,
and the Admiralty sanctioned the construction of the instrument and
the building to contain it." The following passage is quoted from the
Address of the Astronomer Royal to the Board of Visitors at the
Special Meeting of Nov. 10th, 1843: "The most important object in the
institution and maintenance of the Royal Observatory has always been
the Observations of the Moon. In this term I include the determination
of the places of fixed stars which are necessary for ascertaining the
instrumental errors applicable to the instrumental observations of the
Moon. These, as regards the objects of the institution, were merely
auxiliaries: the history of the circumstances which led the Government
of the day to supply the funds for the construction of the Observatory
shews that, but for the demands of accurate Lunar Determinations as
aids to navigation, the erection of a National Observatory would never
have been thought of. And this object has been steadily kept in view
when others (necessary as fundamental auxiliaries) were passed
by. Thus, during the latter part of Bradley's time, and Bliss's time
(which two periods are the least efficient in the modern history of
the Observatory), and during the latter part of Maskelyne's presidency
(when, for years together, there is scarcely a single observation of
the declination of a star), the Observations of the Moon were kept up
with the utmost regularity.
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