Note 2 — Chapter XVI
Reading edition
The discovery of the two moons is due to the agency of a woman. Professor Asaph Hall, of Washington City, was searching by the aid of the most powerful telescope which had yet been directed to Mars, and at the very moment when the planet was in the most favorable condition for observation. Having searched in vain during several evenings in August, 1877, he was about to give up, when Mrs. Hall begged him to search a little more. He did so, and on the night of the 11th he discovered the first of the satellites, and then on the 17th the second.