NEBULZ LATELY OBSERVED IN THE SIX-FEET REFLECTOR. 55 
tius, H. 2098, which in former years had been often examined with a tele- 
scope of three-feet aperture, and with no other result than that it exhibited 
a filamentous edge, when seen with the great instrument was found to have 
two ansz like Saturn. Many have since seen it, and the resemblance to 
Saturn out of focus has usually suggested itself. It is probably a globular 
system surrounded by a ring seen edgeways; while H.450, which turns out 
to have a bright centre surrounded by a comparatively dark ring, and that 
again by a bright ring, though a much fainter object, is not improbably a 
system of the same character seen directly. 
H. 84 and 86 is a remarkable group of nebule; it consists of eight, 
two of them pretty bright. Such groups are not uncommon, but in this 
instance there are I believe more nebulz in a given space than in any other 
group we have noticed ; it was observed by Mr. Stoney. The nebule were not 
connected by any perceptible nebulosity, but there are cases where a nebulous 
connection was distinctly traced; several minute nebule or nebulous knots 
hanging together as it were by a very faint but unmistakeable nebulosity. 
The nebule of Andromeda and Orion have of course been observed. As to 
Andromeda, there seems to be little doubt that the companion is resolvable, 
and the nucleus of the great nebula has that granular appearance which in- 
dicates resolvability : it has however not been seen as yet under very favour- 
able circumstances, and we have not commenced a sketch of it. The nucleus 
was examined on three occasions, and the abrupt edge of the following streak 
in Mr. Bond’s drawing was traced to its visible limits ; but unfortunately we 
did not receive the drawing till the nebula was out of reach, otherwise of 
course more attention would have been directed to it. Subsequent to the re- 
ceipt of the drawing, the nebula was seen by Mr. Stoney in my absence with 
the instrument of three-feet aperture, but at a distance from the meridian : 
the appearance was very much as in Mr. Bond’s drawing, except that the con- 
trast between the preceding portion bounded by the edge of the following 
streak, and the following portion of the nebula was much greater. 
The question however of most interest is, what do these streaks indicate ? 
With the great instrument, dark streaks have been observed in many of the 
nebule, sometimes almost straight, as in Andromeda; for instance, H. 887, 
H. 1909, H. 1041, H. 1149, are cases in point, the streaks being nearly 
straight. H. 1357, to which Mr. Bond refers, is, if possible, a still stronger 
case than it appears to be by Herschel’s drawing, as I find a sketch in our 
journal showing that the appendage is part of the nebula, the nebulosity ex- 
tending and encasing both extremities of the opening just as in Andromeda, 
We have also found a variety of examples of curved streaks; for instance, 
H. 264, H. 491, H. 406, H. 731, H. 854, H. 875, H. 1225, and others. 
Also H. 1486, H. 464, H. 2241, besides the well-known annular nebula, 
and the little annular nebula sketched by Herschel, are some of the examples 
of nebulz with comparatively dark centres; the darkness being apparently of 
the same quality as the dark streaks, but of a different shape. 
' With these facts therefore I think it not improbable that the dark lines 
noticed by Mr. Bond in the nebula of Andromeda, and which with sufficient 
power are perceptible in so many other nebulz, sometimes nearly straight, 
‘sometimes variously curved, as also the dark spaces, are all indications of 
systematic arrangement. When we see a dark space in the centre of a pla- 
hetary nebula, it is impossible to resist the impression that we are looking at 
an annular system bound together by some mysterious dynamical law. If 
we see a bright centre, as in H. 450, surrounded by a dark annulus, and that 
again by a bright annulus, we have a system of another kind; and in the 
spirals, of which 51 Messier is the most remarkable example we yet have found, 

