= 
58 The Earl of Rosse’s Telescopes, and their 
Arr. VI.—The Earl of Rosse’s Telescopes, and their Revela- | 
V 
tions in the Sidereal Heavens; by Rev. W. Scoressy, D.D,, 
R.SS.L. & E., ete.* 
In a second lecture on these interesting subjects, recently de- 
livered at Torquay, much and important consideration was given 
to the inquiry,— What has the gigantic telescope done? 
The lecturer having himself had the privilege of observing on 
different visits, and for considerable periods, with both the in- 
struments, was enabled to reply, he hoped in a satisfactory mat- 
ner, to this inquiry. His opportunities of observing, he said, not- 
withstanding interruptions from clouds and disturbed atmosphere, 
had been somewhat numerous, and, not unfrequently, highly in- 
structive and delightful. Of these observations he had made 
records of nearly 60, on the moon, planets, double stars, clusters, 
and nebule. He had been permitted also to have free access 10, 
and examination of, all the observatory records and drawings, 80 
that he was enabled on the best grounds, he believed, to say, that 
there had been no disappointment in the performance of the in- 
struments ; and that the great instrument, in its peculiar qualities 
of superiority, possesses a marvellous power in collecting light 
and penetrating into regions of previously untouched space. In 
what may be called the domestic regions of our planet—the ob- 
jects in the solar system—all that other instruments may reveal 
is within its grasp or more, though by the prodigious flood of 
light from the brighter planets, the eye is dazzled unless a large 
portion is shut out. 
But in its application to the distant heavens and exploration of 
the nebulous systems there, its peculiar powers have, with 4 
steady atmosphere, their highest developments and noblest ttl- 
umphs. In this department—that to which the instrument has 
been particularly directed—every known object it touches, whet 
the air is favorable, is, as a general fact, exhibited under some neW 
aspect. It pierces into the indefinite or diffuse nebulous forms 
shewn by other instruments in a general manner, and either eX 
hibits configurations altogether unimagined, or resolvés perhaps 
the nebulous patches of light into clusters of stars. Guided in the 
general researches by the worksof the talented and laborious 
erschels—to whom astronomy and science owe a deep debt 0 
gratitude—time has been economized, and the interests of the re 
sults vastly enhanced. So that many objects in which the fine 
instruments of other observers could discern only some vague in- 
definite patch of light, have been brought out in striking, definite, 
and marvellous configurations. 
Among these peculiar revelations is that of the spiral form— 
the most striking and appreciable of all— which we may venture 
to designate “‘ The Rossean Configuration.” Its discovery wa5 
* An abstract of a Lecture delivered at Torquay, November 15, 1852—From the 
inburgh New Philosophical Journal for January, 1853. _ 
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