Being covered in this way, the heavy shutters can be left open for weeks at a time.
"Everything was on a large scale--the rooms were immense.
"The director has three assistants who are called 'elder astronomers,' and two who are called 'adjunct astronomers.' Each of these has a servant devoted to him.

I asked one of the elder astronomers if he had rooms in the observatory, and he answered, 'Yes, my rooms are 94 ft.

by 50.' "They seem to be amused at the size of their lodgings, for Mr.Struve, when he told me of his apartments, gave me at once the dimensions,--200 ft.

by 100 ft.
"The room in which we dined with the family of Herr Struve was immense.
I spoke of it, and he said, 'We cannot open our windows in the winter,--the winters are so severe,--and so we must have good air without it.' Their drawing-room was also very large; the chairs (innumerable, it seemed to me) stood stiffly around the walls of the room.

The floor was painted and highly varnished, and flower-pots were at the numerous windows on little stands.