THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

December 27, 1894

 

LINCOLN’S VIEW OF THE MOON.

Couldn’t Understand Why the Moon Looked Upside Down.

 

            From 1862 to 1866 Professor Asaph Hall worked on the nine-and-a-half inch equatorial at the naval observatory under James Fergason, making observations and reducing his work.  One night, while he was working alone in the dome, the trap door by which it was entered from below opened and a tall, thin figure, crowned by a stovepipe hat, arose in the darkness.  It turned out to be President Lincoln.  He had come up from the White House with Secretary Stanton.  He wanted to take a look at the heavens through the telescope.  Professor Hall showed him the various objects of interest, and finally turned the telescope on the half moon.  The President looked at it a little while and went away. A few nights later the trapdoor opened again, and the same figure appeared.  He told Professor Hall that after leaving the observatory he had looked at the moon, and it was wrong side up as he had seen it through the telescope.  He was puzzled and wanted to know the cause, so he had walked up from the White House alone.  Professor Hall explained to him how the lens of a telescope gives an inverted image, and President Lincoln went away satisfied.