John this is the cincinnati ,bservatory center approximately six miles east of downtown cincinnati. We call ourselves the birthplace of american astronomy. The founder of the observatory was essentially what we call carl sagan of the day or he was the popularizer of astronomy in that particular period. Because of his responsibilities he directed the first observatory of significance in the country and definitely the first public observatory in the country at the time. You was a west point graduate and in the 1840s he was teaching at the cincinnati college. Group inhere was a town, the society for the promotion of useful knowledge. They opened the opportunity to lecture to citizens, population of 50,000, maybe the fourthlargest city in the country. His lecture hall overflowed that so they moved it to a chapel which seated 1200 people. At the end of the lecture they something toe do start the countrys First National observatory. President , he was the countrys first minister or today we would probably say ambassador to alexander the first czar of russia who had the Worlds Largest telescope. He was an expert at astronomy and taught john quincy astronomy. Quincy had a penchant for astronomy for the rest of his life. According to his diary, every day he would see things in the sky. You would record that in his diary. , there were over 30 professional observatories in russia and europe combined. In america we had nothing of the type of telescopes that they had in that period. Up, wanted america to step and he was the promoter of that. They did not want to give money or power to the federal government to what he would old, what he would call his lighthouses in the sky. Did will behey naval observatory build the naval observatory. In the bill that authorized the funding of the depot stipulated the astronomers shall not do a astronomy. All they should do is calibrate for the navy ships so the sea captains could determine where they were at sea by a longitude determination. John quincy at his inaugural address in 1825 challenged congress, and the observatory was founded 1842. By the time they got the telescope from europe, it was 1845 before the telescope went online in mt. Adams and cincinnati. The original concept, the building observatory was that it would be a private institution for the members who paid 25 a share to become members. That was two or three months of labor. Yet he was in only three weeks mitchell acquired the agreement of 30 cincinnati is who would pay that. Over 700 members of the society existed at 25 a member. That was quite impressive that private citizens were willing to do that to fund a public institution. The observatory was founded 1842 based on mitchells lecture. Mitchell was also responsible for designing and holding the observatory. Invite then to expresident John Quincy Adams to town. He was now serving in the house of representatives are in 76 years old, not a good health. His family did not want him to come to town. He accepted the invitation. He wrote the letter saying, im on my way. If im delayed, its not my fault. It took him two weeks to get to town. He used a railroad to go from boston to lake earache, a steamship across lake yeary to cleveland, a canal from cleveland to columbus, stagecoach from columbus to cincinnati, and he arrived here in 1843 for the laying of the cornerstone. He was extremely delighted here he had a twohour oration dedication speech prepared. At the end of the lecture the city said, thank you for coming to town. In your honor we will rename the hill from mt. Ida to mount adams. The one significant item in that speech was that was the last public speech that john quincy 1843,and that was in november 9. Right now we are in the cincinnati observatory main observatory. This is where the original telescope that mitchell acquired was put from 1870s until 1904. In 1904 they got a bigger and better telcope. Time there still was not electricity out of sight. The astronomers would hire teenagers to assist them in doing their work. The teenager would have three jobs. The first job would be coming over and opening up the shutters. To do that you pull on a rope like this. Then the shutter slides all the way into the open position until you see the night sky. The second job was to add energy to the telescope to make it work. It was a mechanical system, works like a grandfather clock. In the base of the pure, the telescope, this is the pure, is the weight. It happened to be a 400 pound block of steel. A teenager would have to crank up the weight. To crank up the weight you grab this handle right here. And turn the weight. Off theweight is ground, gravity is taking over, dropping the weight very slowly. That is kinetic energy. With the weight falling, the chain is transferring to the clockworks of the telescope. You can see the governor spinning at the top. By going to various gears, the small gears on the site are turning very slowly but you dont see them but they are moving. Any energy or torque is transferred to the long column and shaft weight at the top where other gears are involved. Turns,n actual telescope and that actual is parallel to earths axis of rotation. Turns theually Energy Telescope and the telescope moves at the rapid rate of one revolution per day in the opposite direction the earth is rotating. The significance of that is wherever you point the lens of the telescope will stay on and track that long asll night long as the weight is falling, providing energy. The Current Mission of the observatory is a notforprofit organizations education. We reach out to the schools and bring the schoolchildren in, we have 25,000 visitors last year, but we also do public education. On a thursday or friday night we open up the observatory for public viewing. We extending that to more and more weekends. We are trying to excite the public to the thrills of looking at a celestial object through a large telescope. The most rewarding aspect of that is next to the telescope and hear it repeated over and over again, wow. They are truly amazed. They have seen pictures in books but theyve never seen it in real time in their eyes. Its awesome. Find out where cspan city store is going next online at www. Cspan. Org citiestour. Youre watching American History tv all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. When you look at the role the Supreme Court is playing in our society now, our history series has to have relevance. As we thought about what we can do to get relevance to our current programming, a series on the court made all the sense in the world. The court is an equal branch of government. Its the third branch of government. It still has fundamental impact on american life. Inside this elegant building is a courtroom where cases are heard and decisions are made that impact all of our lives. There are so many incredibly interesting cases in the courts history. Weve all heard about roe versus wade, brown versus art of education. Board of education. But we want to do is really talk about not only the legal side of the cases but the people involved in these cases. They are human beings who felt so passionately that they were being wronged but they brought their cases to the court. I think what people will find most fascinating about these cases are the personal stories. One of my personal favorites is matt versus ohio. When people hear this personal story of this woman in this situation, they will fall in love with these cases, they will feel passionate about what has happened in the courts and why they matter and why you should care. Picking the 12 cases was really difficult. We learned a lot. Oure 12 cases represent evolving understanding of rights in america, when you take a look from dred scott, miranda, all the way to roe versus wade, you learn and only about the history of the country but the evolving right in america. Historyark cases, Supreme Court decisions, produced in cooperation with the National Constitution center. Delving into 12 Supreme Court cases that significantly influenced our nations story. Live, monday nights at 9 00 p. M. Eastern beginning october 5 on cspan and cspan3. As a companion to our new series, landmark cases, the book. It teaches the 12 cases we have selected for the series with a brief introduction into the background, highlights and impact of each case, written by veteran Supreme Court journalist tony morrow, published by cspan in cooperation with Congressional Quarterly press. Landmark cases is available for 8. 95 plus shipping and handling. Get your copy at www. Cspan. Org landmarkcases. Up next on American History tv, eistorian john robert green chronicles the 1950 two president ial election between Dwight Eisenhower and edley stephenson. Examines the myth that eisenhower and stephenson ran for president against their own wishes. Talks about the introducon