198 HISTORY OF ASTEONOMY. 



of clusters ; while some of these latter exhibited a sidereal 

 picture in the telescope such as man before had never seen, 

 and which, for its magnificence, baffles all description." 



In the Philosophical Transactions for 1844, Lord Kosse 

 has given some observations of nebulae made with his 

 three feet speculum, accompanied with drawings of the 

 most remarkable objects. Among these is one which 

 Sir John Herschel had figured as an oval resolvable 

 nebula. Lord Eosse's telescope exhibits it with resolvable 

 filaments singularly disposed, springing principally from 

 its southern extremity, and not, as is usual in clusters, 

 irregularly in all directions. It is studded with stars, 

 mixed, however, with a nebulosity, probably consisting 

 of stars too minute to be recognized. This has been 

 called the crab nebula. 



The Dumb Bell nebula, known everywhere by the 

 drawing of Sir John Herschel, is seen to consist of in- 

 numerable stars mixed with nebulosity ; and Lord Kosse 

 remarks, that when we turn the eye from the telescope 

 to the Milky "Way, the similarity is so striking, that it 

 is impossible not to feel a conviction that the nebulosity 

 in both proceeds from the same cause. 



The annular nebula in Lyra shows filaments proceed- 

 ing from the edge of the ring, and also several filaments 

 partly filling up the interior of the ring. By the three 

 feet speculum it was not resolved ; but the filaments be- 

 came conspicuous under increasing magnifying power, 

 which circumstance is strikingly characteristic of a cluster. 



The nebula in the Dog's Ear was formerly regarded 



