published his results in a series of famous papers, ending up by pointing to the place near which Neptune must be. Now he pointed to very nearly the same place in the sky as Adams; as Airy found on comparing Leverrier's paper with the note he had received from Adams nearly a year before; and this made Airy think there must be enough chance of finding the planet to be worth trying. So he woke up the professor at Cambridge and told him to begin searching. The professor set to work, but was still half asleep, so that though he looked straight at Neptune more than once, he did not recognize it. Meanwhile Leverrier had set Galle, a German astronomer, to work (it is very curious how all these people set other folk to work instead of looking themselves, as they might easily have done), and Galle found the planet on the first night! You can well imagine that there was then a great fuss
Page:A Voyage in Space (1913).djvu/183
This page has been validated.
VISITS TO THE MOON AND PLANETS
163