Revelations in the Sidereal Heavens. 59 
at once novel and splendid; and in reference to the dynamical 
principles on which these vast aggregations of remote suns are 
whirled about within their respective systems and sustained 
against interferences, promises to be of the greatest importance. 
ne of the most splendid nebule of this class—the great spi- 
ral or whirlpool—has been figured in the Philosophical Transac- 
tions for 1850. It may be considered as the grand type and ex- 
ample of a class; for near 40 more, with spiral characteristics, 
have been observed, and about 20 of them carefully figured. 
Dr. Scoresby had the pleasure of being present at the discovery 
of this particular form im a nebula of the planetary denomination, 
in which two portions following spiral forms were detected, Its 
color was peculiar,—pale blue. He had the privilege, too, of 
being present on another interesting occasion, when the exam- 
ination of the great nebula in Orion was first seen to yield decisive 
tokens of resolution. 94 
In these departments of research, the examination of the con- 
—has been decidedly great, and the new knowledge acquired, 
concerning the handiwork of the Great Creator, amply satisfying 
of even sanguine anticipations. 
Dr. Scoresby found, in September last, that about 700 cata- 
to 140 or more. The numberof observations, involving separate sets 
of the instrument, recorded in the ledger, (exclusive of very many 
hundreds, possibly thousands, on the moon and planets,) amount 
tonear 1700, involving several hundreds of determinations of 
position and angular measurements with the micrometer on the 
far distant stars. The carefully drawn configurations, eliciting 
In speaking of the effects of the flood of light accumulated by 
the six-feet speculum of the Earl of Rosse, Dr. Scoresby remark- 
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