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No one knew this better than Herschel. Every serene dark night was to him a precious opportunity availed of to the last minute. The thermometer might descend below zero, ink might freeze, mirrors might crack; but, provided the stars shone, he and his sister worked on from dusk to dawn. In this way, his “third review,” begun at Bath, was finished in the spring of 1783. The swiftness with which it was conducted implied no want of thoroughness. “Many a night,” he states, “in the course of eleven or twelve hours of observation, I have carefully and singly examined not less than 400 celestial objects, besides taking measures, and sometimes viewing a particular star for half an hour together, with all the various powers.”

The assiduity appears well-nigh incredible with which he gathered in an abundant harvest of nebulæ and double stars; his elaborate papers, brimful of invention and experience, being written by day, or during nights unpropitious for star-gazing. On one occasion he is said to have worked without intermission at the telescope and the desk for seventy-two hours, and then slept unbrokenly for twenty-six hours. His instruments were never allowed to remain disabled. They were kept, like himself, on the alert. Relays of specula were provided, and one was in no case removed from the tube for re-polishing, unless another was ready to take its place. Even the meetings of the Royal Society were attended only when moonlight effaced the delicate objects of his particular search.