<p>In 1669, French-Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini arrived at the still-under-construction Paris Observatory as its new director. He quickly talked Louis XIV’s minister of finance into buying a 34-foot Campani refractor for the observatory, and on Oct. 25, 1671, used that refractor to discover Saturn’s moon Iapetus. The second saturnian moon discovered, after Christaan Huygens’ 1655<a class="more-link" href="https://www.astronomy.com/today-in-the-history-of-astronomy/oct-25-1671-iapetus-is-discovered/">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">"Oct. 25, 1671: Iapetus is discovered"</span></a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.astronomy.com/today-in-the-history-of-astronomy/oct-25-1671-iapetus-is-discovered/">Oct. 25, 1671: Iapetus is discovered</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.astronomy.com">Astronomy Magazine</a>.</p>
In 1669, French-Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini arrived at the still-under-construction Paris Observatory as its new director. He quickly talked Louis XIV’s minister of finance into buying a 34-foot Campani refractor for the observatory, and on Oct. 25, 1671, used that refractor to discover Saturn’s moon Iapetus. The second saturnian moon discovered, after Christaan Huygens’ 1655Continue reading “Oct. 25, 1671: Iapetus is discovered”
The post Oct. 25, 1671: Iapetus is discovered appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.