Cincinnati Observatory Center

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Description

The Cincinnati Observatory was founded by Ormsby McKnight Mitchel, who, as a Professor at Cincinnati College in 1842, generated public enthusiasm for astronomy through a series of public lectures. At that time, there were a few small telescopes in the country, but no organized observatory with a powerful instrument existed anywhere. Mitchel was able to interest a number of people in the possibility of erecting the first such observatory in the US. At the end of one of his lectures, Mitchel presented his plan to the audience of 2000. The plan was to organize the Cincinnati Astronomical Society, who would be shareholders in the observatory. Their shares would go for the purchase of a first-class instrument, and would entitle them to the use of the telescope. In three weeks, 300 subscribers had been obtained, and Mitchel set out to purchase the needed instrument.

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