Olomouc, Czech Republic), where he made only a few drawings, but undertook micrometric measurements of its mountains to further increase the knowledge of the Moon. Work at Athens Observatory In 1858, Simon Sinas made a proposal for Schmidt to come to Athens and become the director of the Athens Observatory (now known as National Observatory of Athens). Accepting the offer would bring him a good salary, freedom to do the research he wants to do and a site with a large amount of clear nights per year. The decision was his, as Schmidt never married, so on December 2, he chose to accept the offer. The degraded state of the observatory forbid observation. It was not until November 1859 that it was in a usable state, after a year of repairs requested by Schmidt, though the restoration was entirely completed in 1861. The observatory's instruments at the time: 158mm aperture f/15 achromatic refracting telescope restored by Plössl 94mm aperture meridian circle five small telescopes for comets two chronometers; one for mean time and another for sidereal time two barometers other meteorological instruments When the air was stable enough, he drew while using an eyepiece that provides 300x magnification in combination with the large observatory telescope. Only in very rare cases could he use an eyepiece of 500x magnification. He ran systematic studies on not only the Moon but also sunspots, color of stars, variable stars, meteors, comets, Saturn's rings, eclipses, twilight, zodiacal light, nebulas, weather, seismic activity, rotational period and diameters of the major planets and satellites of the gas giants. In 1866 he made the astonishing claim that Linné crater had considerably changed its appearance, which began a controversy that continued for many decades. Coming from such a careful lifelong observer, the claim carried some weight; however, the claim is generally considered unproven. Schmidt may have been biased by his volcano observations taken place during the same year. He spent over two years on the first draft of his great Moon map encompassing the entirety of the lunar surface, gradually entering the results of his more recent observations from Athens, when he realized continuing this undertaking would not end well. The dimensions of the initial four quadrants were too large to capture the detail he hoped for with the necessary precision. Even disregarding this, having such large plates engraved in copper would have been very difficult to execute. He