On 25 March 1655, Huygens discovered a moon orbiting the planet Saturn, using a telescope lens he had ground himself. Christiaan initially formulated his discovery in the form of an anagram: a rearranging of the letters to hide the original meaning of his Latin sentence. By making his discovery known to a few correspondents in this manner, Huygens safeguarded his claim to the discovery, while allowing himself the time to test his theories by observing Saturn for longer.<\/p>\n\n
Christiaan used a line of verse by the Roman poet Ovid for his anagram: \u2018ADMOVERE<\/strong> <\/strong>OCVLIS DISTANTIA SIDERA NOSTRIS\u2019, with an additional string of unconnected letters VVVVVVVCCCRRHNBQX\u2019. The translation of the first section is: \u2018They brought the distant stars closer to our eyes\u2019. As Christiaan himself said: \u2018Nobody saw before me, what was hidden in these letters\u2019.<\/p>\n\n Huygens revealed the real meaning of this anagram a year later, in March 1656, in a small printed pamphlet entitled DE SATURNI LUNA OBSERVATIO NOVA<\/strong><\/em> and in some letters to his correspondents. The text of the pamphlet was also included in Pierre Borel\u2019s book about the discovery of the telescope (De vero telescopii inventore<\/em>), which appeared later that month.<\/p>\n\n The correct reading of the anagram is \u2018SATURNO LUNA SUA CIRCUNDUCITUR DIEBUS SEXDECIM HORIS QUATUOR\u2019, which can be translated as \u2018Saturn\u2019s moon circles the planet in sixteen days and four hours\u2019.<\/p>\n\n