VOL. LXXIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 6l3 



resolving also that portion of them which is called nebulous into stars of a much 

 smaller size, I have placed them into the above number. To these may be added 

 the 1st, 3, 27, 33, 57, 79, 81, 82, 101, which in my 7, 10, and 20-feet reflectors 

 showed a mottled kind of nebulosity, which I shall call resolvable; so that I ex- 

 pect my present telescope will perhaps render the stars visible of which I suppose 

 them to be composed. 



My present pursuits, as before observed, requiring this telescope to act as a 

 fixed instrument, I found it not convenient to apply it to any other of the nebulae 

 in the Connoissance des Temps but such as came in turn ; nor indeed was it 

 necessary to take any particular pains to look for them, it being utterly impos- 

 sible that any one of them should escape my observation when it passed the field 

 of view of my telescope. The few which I have already had an opportunity of ex- 

 amining, show plainly that those most excellent French astronomers, Messrs. 

 Messier and Mechain, saw only the more luminous part of their nebulae; the 

 feeble shape of the remainder, for want of light, escaping their notice. The 

 difference will appear when we compare my observation of the 98th nebula with 

 that in the Connoissance des Temps for 1784, which runs thus: " Nebuleuse 

 sans etoile, d'une lumiere extremement foible, au dessus de l'aile boreale de la 

 Vierge, sur le parallele et pres de letoile N° 6, cinquieme grandeur, de la che- 

 velure de Berenice, suivant Flamsteed. M. Mechain la vit le 15 Mars, 1781." 

 My observation of the 30th of December, 1783, is thus: A large, extended, 

 fine nebula. Its situation shows it to be M. Messier's 98th; but from the de- 

 scription it appears that that gentleman has not seen the whole of it, for its feeble 

 branches extend above a quarter of a degree, of which no notice is taken. Near 

 the middle of it are a few stars visible, and more suspected. My field of view 

 will not quite take in the whole nebula. See fig. 2, pi. 8. Again, N° 53. 

 " Nebuleuse sans etoiles, decouverte au-dessous et pres de la chevelure de Bere- 

 nice, a peu de distance de l'etoile quarante-deuxieme de cette constellation, sui- 

 vant Flamsteed. Cette nebuleuse est ronde et apparente, &c." My observation 

 of the 170th sweep runs thus: A cluster of very close stars; one of the most 

 beautiful objects I remember to have seen in the heavens. The cluster appears 

 under the form of a solid ball, consisting of small stars, quite compressed into 

 one blaze of light, with a great number of loose ones surrounding it, and dis- 

 tinctly visible in the general mass. See fig. 3. 



When I began my present series of observations, I surmised, that several 

 nebulae might yet remain undiscovered, for want of sufficient light to detect them ; 

 and was therefore in hopes of making a valuable addition to the clusters of stars 

 and nebulae already collected and given in the work before referred to, which 

 amount to 103. The event has plainly proved that my expectations were well 

 founded: for I have already found 466 new nebulae and clusters of stars, none 



