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. In 1842, Mitchel inspected a 12 inch objective lens
of the highest quality in Munich, at the optical institute
formerly run by Fraunhofer, and ordered