Opera mechanica, geometrica, astronomica et miscellanea

HUGENII VITA.

He constructed a telescope of ten feet which, as he himself was convinced, surpassed all others of that time. With its help, he discovered a companion of Saturn. All the satellites of this planet were unknown to astronomers at that time, and it was not until many years later that Cassini discovered the remaining four, among which one is more distant from Saturn than the Huygenian one.

He did not immediately communicate the new celestial body he had found to the astronomers, yet he sent the discovery to certain people, wrapped in these words and letters:

"Admovere oculis distantia sidera nostris" original: "Admovere oculis distantia sidera nostris" translation: They have brought distant stars to our eyes.
v v v v v v v C C C R R H N B Q X.

He inscribed these words with the attached letters on the glass lens itself.

The explanation is: A moon is carried around Saturn in sixteen days and four hours. He later determined the period of this moon more exactly in the following pages.

* See page 551.

The enigma is explained by the transposition of the letters.

For many years, he spent diligent effort with his brother on shaping glass lenses to discover new things in the heavens, especially from the year 1681 to the year 1687, and they rendered this art more perfect; they constructed many larger telescopes from very accurately elaborated lenses. Among the lenses