Eighteen days later.

A quiet summer night.

No black clouds were visible in the sky. The stars exerted their effort, merging droplets of light together.

Although not as splendid as the Sun, nor as clear as the Moon, they still sprinkled starlight dreamily onto the world.

The twinkling starlight intertwined, turning the earth into a peculiar world, sparking a desire in people to explore.

Compared to the vast starry sky, humans seem pitifully small, like dust.

Under the universe, humans are as insignificant as ants on the ground.

Yet, even ants differ from each other.

For instance, at this moment.

Night has fallen.

In Bianjing City, the 'ants' may have already gone to sleep, or are preparing for tomorrow's expenses, or wandering around the night market in pairs.

Some lie on the lap pillows of singing princesses on pleasure boats, enjoying some special amusement.

And outside Bianjing City.

On a short but very spacious hill, another group of 'ants' is busy.

Dozens of servants, holding torches, surround the edge of an open area, providing light while standing guard.

Inside the open area, twenty to thirty people stand orderly, assembling and testing something, looking lively.

"Careful, careful, three, two, one, lift!"

"Left side, left side, yes, yes, right here, right here....."

"Swoosh, release release release release release release!"

"Where's the axle? Where's the axle?"

"Yongzhu, take the donkey away first. We'll need it to haul cargo on the way down the mountain!"

Amidst the noisy chatter.

Xu Yun stands beside a giant iron cylinder, seriously making the final adjustments.

"Master Chen, align the polar axis to the north celestial pole! Yes, yes, very good!"

"Master Guo, check if the four hairsprings have wedged into the celestial socket."

"Captain Wang, fix the right side a bit tighter..."

About ten days ago.

Siegfried officially completed the grinding of the lens and handed it to Xu Yun.

Xu Yun then spent a day for fine grinding, ultimately processing the lens's NA value between 1.18-1.20 and passing the final verification test.

But although everything was ready, he did not rush to start astronomical observations.

Firstly, astronomical observations have certain environmental requirements—visibility must be high.

After all, with a sky full of clouds, you can't observe, right?

Secondly…

Xu Yun was waiting for a special day.

Thus, he waited for a full ten days.

Of course.

During these ten days, Xu Yun was not idle.

Aside from attending classes as usual, he also took several donkey cart rides to scout for suitable observation points.

After some observation, he finally selected this small hill.

This little hill is only about a hundred meters high, looking somewhat low.

But actually.

The inside of the hill is half empty, with a very spacious large platform at its waist, capable of accommodating hundreds of people.

According to the information Mr. Xie obtained.

This hill was originally a clay kiln, later closed and abandoned due to its former owner being involved in a corruption case, while the transport platform at its waist was preserved.

Now, after several years, it was picked up by Xu Yun.

After about a quarter of an hour.

Siegfried briskly walked to him, respectfully saying:

"Mr. Wang, all parts have been debugged."

Xu Yun cupped his hands to express thanks, handed him the waterskin at his waist:

"Thank you, Master Qi, have a drink."

Then he walked to the right side of the cylinder, put on gut gloves, and placed the Star-finding Mirror's lens into the side wing of the cylinder.

As previously mentioned.

The telescope designed by Xu Yun has a diameter of one meter, length close to ten meters, and weighs up to five tons.

Therefore, in order to maintain the ability to turn and stabilize the cylinder at the same time, it could only be tilted towards the sky and externally equipped with fixed installations.

As for how it was hauled up the mountain...

Simply put, Brother Lv's efforts are indispensable.

Five tons is not heavy, indeed.

Actually.

Such devices appeared in the 19th century, specifically in 1865.

At that time, the John Bull Royal Society invested heavily in creating a large iron telescope weighing 8.9 tons for observation, which is now in the Oxford Museum.

Although the telescope designed by the Royal Society did not have the highest precision at the time, its significance was extraordinary:

This was the first official star observation in human history.

This also represented a certain attitude of the British Royal Family towards science—although the industrial something is filled with blood and tears, at least in the scientific attitude, the British Royal Family was indeed right.

Coincidentally.

At the same time, domestically Emperor Tongzhi was also looking up to the stars.

But he was not observing through a telescope; he was just praying to the gods and spirits—that year, a cholera outbreak occurred domestically; naturally, people were panicked and could only turn to gods and Buddha, hoping to determine national policies by astrology.

It is worth mentioning.

Also in that same year, Nokia was just established...

Returning to reality.

After all the adjustments were completed.

Xu Yun walked to Old Su's side and looked at the surrounding crowd.

Besides Old Su, everyone today included Wang Bing and his brother, Xiaozhao, Old Jia, and six mathematicians, Siegfried, Mr. Xie, and Xiaoli and his daughter—they came as Old Li was quite concerned about a late-night outing.

Additionally.

There were a few special individuals present:

Among them, the leftmost was a seventy-year-old civil servant from the Scripture Compilation Institute, a Junior Eighth Grade 推官.

What is called the Scripture Compilation Institute refers to the book compilation agency belonging to the Song Dynasty History Hall.

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