Editing James Nasmyth (section)

===Later life===
[[File:James Nasmyth drawing.jpg|thumb|upright|Drawing of a crater on the surface of the Moon by Nasmyth]]

Nasmyth retired from business in 1856 when he was 48 years old, as he said "I have now enough of this world's goods: let younger men have their chance".  He settled down near [[Penshurst]], Kent, where he renamed his retirement home "Hammerfield" and happily pursued his various hobbies including [[astronomy]].  He built his own 20-inch [[Nasmyth telescope|reflecting telescope]], in the process inventing the [[Nasmyth telescope|Nasmyth focus]], and made detailed observations of the [[Moon]].  He co-wrote ''The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite'' (1874) with [[James Carpenter (astronomer)|James Carpenter]] (1840&ndash;1899).  This book contains an interesting series of "lunar" photographs: because photography was not yet advanced enough to take pictures at very high magnification directly of the Moon itself, Nasmyth built plaster relief scale models based on his visual observations of the Moon and then photographed the models under electric illumination, replicating the shadows of the topographic contours he observed on the Moon. A [[Impact crater|crater]] on the Moon is named after him.

He was happily married to his wife Anne, from Woodburn, [[Yorkshire]], for 50 years, until his death. They had no children.

They are buried in the north section of the [[Dean Cemetery]] in western [[Edinburgh]]. The huge memorial stands at the east end of the main east–west path, with the path dividing around it. The monument holds a well-carved model of his steam hammer. James' mother, Barbara Foulis (1765-1848) is buried with them. The monument also stands as a memorial to his brother, [[Patrick Nasmyth]] (1787-1831)