Astronomy compels
the soul to look
upwards
and leads us from
this world to another.
...Plato
On our drive, I was shown several historical sites. At the end of a cul-de-sac of a tree lined residential neighborhood sits two buildings from a different era.
The Cincinnati Observatory
"Lighthouse to the Sky"
Prompted by the response to his lectures, astronomer Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel (1809-1862) founded the Cincinnati Astronomical Society in 1842. With C.A.S. funding, Mitchel traveled to Munich, Bavaria, to acquire the optical elements for what became the world's second largest refractor telescope. In 1843 former President John Quincy Adams laid the cornerstone of the observatory building located upon the hill since known as Mount Adams, in his honor. The Cincinnati Observatory was completed and opened for study in 1845. Mitchel, who died in service during the Civil War , was among the first to popularize astronomy in America. The telescope he brought to Cincinnati remains in daily use and is the oldest such instrument in the United States. In 1998 the Cincinnati Observatory was declared a National Historic Landmark.
