addition which it makes to the cost of an instrument. A little care in adjusting the finder now and again will often save trouble and annoyance on a working evening. The question of a stand on which to mount the telescope now falls to be considered, and is one of great importance, though apt to be rather neglected at first. It will soon be found that little satisfaction or comfort can be had in observing unless the stand adopted is steady. A shaky mounting will spoil the performance of the best telescope that ever was made, and will only tantalize the observer with occasional glimpses of what might be seen under better conditions. Better have a little less aperture to the object-glass, and a good steady mounting, than an extra inch of objective and a mounting which robs you of all comfort in the using of your telescope. Beginners are indeed rather apt to be misled into the idea that the only matters of importance are the objective and its tube, and that money spent on the stand is money wasted. Hence many fearful and wonderful contrivances for doing badly what a little saved in the size of the telescope and expended on the stand would have enabled them to do well. It is very interesting, no doubt, to get a view of Jupiter or Saturn for one field's-breadth, and then to find, on attempting to readjust the instrument for another look, that the mounting has obligingly taken your star-gazing into its own hands, and is now directing your telescope to a different object altogether; but repetition of this form of amusement is apt to pall. A radically weak stand can never be made into a good one; the best plan is to get a properly proportioned mounting at once, and be done with it. [Illustration: FIG. 9.--SMALL TELESCOPE ON PILLAR AND CLAW STAND.]