It is often convenient to make small maps of a part of the heavens we may wish to study closely.  My ‘Handbook of the Stars’ has been prepared to aid the student in the construction of such maps.

In selecting maps it is well to be able to recognise the amount of distortion and scale-variation.  This may be done by examining the spaces included between successive parallels and meridians, near the edges and angles of the maps, and comparing these either with those in the centre of the map, or with the known figures and dimensions of the corresponding spaces on a globe.

We may now proceed to discuss the different tests which the intending purchaser of a telescope should apply to the instrument.

The excellence of an object-glass can be satisfactorily determined only by testing the performance of the telescope in the manner presently to be described.  But it is well to examine the quality of the glass as respects transparency and uniformity of texture.  Bubbles, scratches, and other such defects, are not very important, since they do not affect the distinctness of the field as they would in a Galilean Telescope,—­a little light is lost, and that is all.  The same remark applies to dust upon the glass.  The glass should be kept as free as possible from dirt, damp, or dust, but it is not advisable to remove every speck which, despite such precaution, may accidentally fall upon the object-glass.  When it becomes necessary to clean the glass, it is to be noted that the substance used should be soft, perfectly dry, and free from dust.  Silk is often recommended, but some silk is exceedingly objectionable in texture,—­old silk, perfectly soft to the touch, is perhaps as good as anything.  If the dust which has fallen on the glass is at all gritty, the glass will suffer by the method of cleaning commonly adopted, in which the dust is gathered up by pressure.  The proper method is to clean a small space near the edge of the glass, and to sweep from that space as centre.  In this way the dust is pushed before the silk or wash-leather, and does not cut the glass.  It is well always to suspect the presence of gritty dust, and adopt this cautious method of cleaning.

The two glasses should on no account be separated.

In examining an eye-piece, the quality of the glass should be noted, and care taken that both glasses (but especially the field-glass) are free from the least speck, scratch, or blemish of any kind, for these defects will be exhibited in a magnified state in the field of view.  Hence the eye-pieces require to be as carefully preserved from damp and dust as the object-glass, and to be more frequently cleaned.

The tube of the telescope should be light, but strong, and free from vibration.  Its quality in the last respect can be tested by lightly striking it when mounted; the sound given out should be dead or non-resonant.  The inside of the tube must absorb extraneous light, and should therefore be coloured a dull black; and stops of varying radius should be placed along its length with the same object.  Sliding tubes, rack-work, etc., should work closely, yet easily.