140 COSMOS. 



ponderance* on tlie side of the more beautiful southern 

 heavens. 



A^Tien in 1843 I requested Captain Schwinck (of the En- 

 gineers) to communicate to me the distribution according to 

 right ascension of the 12,148 stars (from the first to the sev- 

 enth inclusive), which, at Bessel's suggestion, he had noted 

 in his Mappa Ccdestis, he found in four groups — 

 Right Ascension, 50° to 140° 3147 stars. 



140° 230° 2627 " 

 230° 320° 3523 " 

 320° 50° 2851 " 



These groups correspond with the more exact results of the 

 Etudes Stellaires, according to which the maxima of stars 

 of the first to the ninth magnitude occur in the right ascen- 

 sion 6h. 40m. and. 18h. 40m., and the minima in the right 

 ascension of Ih. 30m. and 13h. 30m. f 



It is essential that, in reference to the conjectural struc- 

 ture of the universe and to the position or depth of these 

 strata of conglomerate matter, we should distinguish among 

 the countless number of stars with which the heavens are 

 studded, those which are scattered sporadically, and those 

 which occur in separate, indepei^dent, and crowded groups. 

 The latter are the so-called stellar clusters or sivarms, which 

 frequently contain thousands of telescopic stars in recogniza- 

 ble relations to each other, and which appear to the unaided 

 eye as round nebulas, shining like comets. These are, the 

 aebulous stars of Eratosthenes^ and Ptolemy, the nebulosce 

 of the Alphonsine Tables in 1463, and the same of which 

 Galileo said in the Nuncius Sidereus, " Sicut areolae spar- 

 sim per sethera sub fulgent." 



These clusters of stars are either scattered separately 

 throughout the heavens, or closely and irregularly crowded 

 together, in strata, as it were, m the Milky Way, and in the 

 Magellanic clouds. The greatest accumulation of globular 

 clusters, and the most important in reference to the config- 

 uration of the galactic circle, occurs in a region of the south- 

 ern heavens^ between Corona Australis, Sagittarius, the 



* Op. cit., § 795, 79G ; Struve, Etudes d'Astr. StelL, p. 66, 73 (and 

 note 75). 



t Struve, p. 59. Schwinck finds in his maps, R. A. 0O-90°, 2858 

 stars; R. A. 90°-180O, 3011 stars; R. A. 180'^^-270^, 2688 stars; R. A 

 '270^-360°, 3591 stars; sum total, 12,148 stars to the seventh magnitude 



X On the nebula in the right hand of Perseus (near the hilt of his 

 sword), see Eratosth., Catast., c. 22, p. 51, Schaubach. 



^ John Herschel's Observations at the Cape, $ 105, p. 13G. 



