"But nothing serious could be attempted, for want of time, till the beginning of June, when some of my brother's scholars were leaving Bath; and then, to my sorrow, I saw almost every room turned into a workshop. A cabinet-maker making a tube and stands of all descriptions in a handsomely furnished drawing-room; ALEX. putting up a huge turning machine (which he had brought in the autumn from Bristol, where he used to spend the summer) in a bedroom, for turning patterns, grinding glasses, and turning eye-pieces, etc. At the same time music durst not lie entirely dormant during the summer, and my brother had frequent rehearsals at home, where Miss FARINELLI, an Italian singer, was met by several of the principal performers he had engaged for the winter concerts."
Finally, in 1774, he had made himself a Gregorian telescope,[10] and had begun to view the heavens. He was then thirty-six years old.
The writer in the _European Magazine_ describes this period:
"All this time he continued his astronomical observations, and nothing now seemed wanting to complete his felicity, but sufficient leisure to enjoy his telescopes, to which he was so much attached, that at the theatre he used frequently to run from the harpsichord to look at the stars, during the time between the acts."
In an extract from his _Journal No. 1_, now at the rooms of the Royal Society, may be seen a copy of his first observation of the Nebula of _Orion_, on March 4, 1774. This was made with his five-and-a-half-foot Gregorian reflector.
It was at this time (1775), between the acts of the theatre, that he made his first review of the heavens, with a Newtonian telescope, of an aperture of four and a half inches and a magnifying power of 222 times. This telescope was one of the first made by himself. The review consisted of the examination of every star in the sky of the first, second, third, and fourth magnitudes, and of all planets visible. There are no records of these observations now extant, and they are noteworthy only as a preparation for more serious work.
He was carrying out his resolve to see everything for himself. His assiduity may be judged of by the fact that between 1774 and 1781 HERSCHEL had observed a single object--the Nebula of _Orion_--no less than fourteen times.