270 Caroline Lucretia Herschel. [1835. 



FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL. 



FELDHAUSEN, C. G. H., Feb. 22, 1835. 



***** 



For my own part I never enjoyed such good health in 

 England as I have done since I came here. The first 

 coming on of the hot season affected me a little (odd enough 

 with colds and rheumatisms), but it soon went off. 



The stars continue to be propitious, and the nights which 

 follow a shower, or a "black south-easter," are the most 

 observing nights it is possible to imagine. I have swept 

 well over Scorpio, and have many entries in my sweeping 

 books of the kind you describe, viz., blank space in the 

 heavens without the smallest star. For example : 



R.A. 16 h 15 m N.P.D. 113 56' a field without the smallest star. 

 16 19 116 3 Antares (a ScoryiL) 



16 23 ,, 114 25 to 214 5' fields entirely void of stars. 



16 26 ,, 114 14 not a star 16 m Nothing ! 



16 27 114 as far as 114 10'. 



and so on. Then come on the globular clusters, then more 

 blank fields, then suddenly the Milky Way comes on as here 

 described (from my sweep 474, July 29, 1834) : 



" 17 h 28 m , 114 27'. The Milky Way comes on in large 

 milky nebulous irregular patches and banks, with few stars 

 of visible magnitude, after a succession of black fields and 

 extremely rare stars above 18th magnitude. I do not 

 remember ever to have seen the Milky Way so decidedly 

 nebulous, or, indeed, at all so, before." 



Altogether the constitution of the Milky Way in its whole 

 extent, from Scorpio to Argo Navis, is extremely curious and 

 interesting. I have already collected a pretty large cata- 

 logue of southern nebulae, for the most part hitherto un- 

 observed, but my most remarkable object is a fine planetary 

 nebula of a beautiful greenish-blue colour, a full and intense 



