The least known participant in the Gotha meeting in 1798: George Butler. In: The Message of the Angles - Astrometry from 1798 to 1998. Proceedings of the International Spring Meeting of the Astronomische Gesellschaft, Gotha,

Zach mentioned in a letter to Ludwig (Lajos) von Schedius of January 26, 1799, a certain »Buttler from Cambridge« as one of the participants in the first astronomical meeting held in Gotha in 1798: »Mein Haus war wie ein Ey voll. La Lande, seine Nichte, sein cousin ein emigrirter Priester, Bode, van Marum, Wurm, Feer, Horner, Schaubach, logirten auf dem Seeberge bey mir. Klugel, Gilbert, Pistor, Kohler, Seyffert aus Dresden, Seyffer aus Gottingen, Buttler aus Cambridge logirten zwar in der Stadt, waren aber doch von Morgen bis Abend meine Gaste, und blieben wenn es sternhell war, auch die Nacht uber auf der ... Seeberger Sternwarte.« [1] In the summer of 1798 the 24-year-old George Butler went on a tour of the Continent, visiting primarily the German-speaking territories [3, 4]. During his journey he met Schiller in Jena, Christoph Martin Wieland in Ossmannstedt, Johann Gottfried Herder and Goethe in Weimar, and others. On September 9 Butler visited Georg Christoph Lichtenberg in Gottingen, and on September 19 he arrived in Weimar. Possibly he came to Gottingen from Gotha, where the astronomical meeting lasted until the end of August. A diary of the journey is in the possession of a direct descendant of Butler in London. Very recently we got access to this diary and found a final proof of George Butler’s participation. Later George Butler became one of the founding members of the Royal Astro-nomical Society, but no activity is reported in the