Clusters of Stars in the Southern Hemisphere. 29'^ 



matter with another. I find the existence of extensively dif- 

 fused faint nebulosity throughout a great portion of this quar- 

 ter of the heavens, from the Robur Caroli to the Nebula Ma- 

 jor, and I can even trace its existence in the vicinity of Nebu- 

 la Minor. 



The Nebula Major is situated between 4^1 46' and 6'^ 3' in 

 right ascension, and between Q&^ 30' and 71° 30' of south de- 

 clination ; but the body or principal portion of the nebula is 

 situated between 5'^ 7' and 5>^ 40' in right ascension, and be- 

 tween 69° and 71° of south declination, and is composed of 

 very strong bright nebula, very rich in small nebulae and clus- 

 tering stars of all the variety of small magnitudes : I compar- 

 ed this portion of the nebula Avith Sobieski*'s Shield, which in 

 this latitude is near the zenith. The observation says, " The 

 Nebula Major very much resembles the brightness in Sobies- 

 ki's Shield ; it is scarcely so large, but I think it is equally 

 bright." Another observation says, " The ridge or brighter 

 portion of Nebula Major is more condensed than the Shield." , 



The bright ridge or body of the nebula is extended obli- 

 quely to the equator, north preceding and south following, 

 and the following extremity breaks off rather suddenly, faint, 

 decreasing in brightness in a south following direction to the 

 distance of fully a degree and a half towards the star /5, which 

 is slightly involved in the narrow extremity : preceding the 

 star marked 7, a considerable increase of the brightness of the 

 nebulous matter takes place ; another accumulation takes place 

 at b about 15' diameter. There is a small star north with a 

 small nebula preceding, but neither of them are involved in 

 the accumulation of the nebulous matter, b and £ are connect- 

 ed by streams of unequal brightness, g is pretty large and is 

 rich in small stars and nebulae : opposite h and s, towards the 

 principal body of the nebula, the nebulous matter is very faint 

 and of unequal brightness ; s is south following a beautiful 

 group of nebulae of various forms and magnitudes, on a ground 

 of strong nebulosity common to all, with the 30 Doradus (Bode) 

 in the centre. 



South of the 30 Doradus a pretty bright accumulation of 

 the nebulous matter takes place, extended, preceding and fol- 

 lowing, and is joined by pretty strong nebula to the arm x, 



