THE NEBULA OF ORION. 263 



his stay there to astronomical work. The nebula of Orion of course 

 attracted much of his attention, and on account of its favorable situa- 

 tion for observation he was enabled to examine it to much better ad- 

 vantao-e than in England. In the " Astronomical Observations at the 

 Cape of Good Hope," Herschel has given a figure of the nebula as he 

 saw it (see Fig. 3), and has added an account of its appearance, a por- 

 tion of which account we shall quote. 



Fig. 5 is a representation of the small stars immediately in the 

 vicinity of the trapezium as seen by Herschel. 



N 

 Nebula Obionis. (Herschel, 1834.) 



It is easily seen that the circumstances at the Cape of Good Hope 

 were much more favorable than they had been in England : this is 

 witnessed in the figures here given by the greater number of stars 

 shown, and in the original drawing by the amount of detail in the 

 features of the nebula itself. The nebulosity surrounding d Orionis 

 was traced by Herschel over half a square degree of space, and nu- 

 merous points of doubt were settled. In his account Herschel states 

 that he discovered the sixth star of the trapezium in 1S32, and he ex- 

 presses his surprise that Struve, who had examined the stars in this 

 neighborhood frequently, should have overlooked it. 



Da Vico, of the Roman College, had in 1839 declared that he had 

 seen the stars within the trapezium (an assertion which has been re- 

 peated since by various observers, good and bad), and Herschel 

 takes the opportunity to declare that not only had he seen no stars 

 there, but that the absence of any trace of star or even of nebulosity 



