Clusters and Nebulae. 55 



middle compressed almost to nebulosity, stars very small, irre- 

 gular triangular figure." I found it visible with a cornet-power 

 of 29, and resolved into stars with 164, having then somewhat 

 of the aspect that its brilliant neighbour has in the finder.* 

 There is something very striking in the juxtaposition of these 

 two objects ; the one viewed, at an inconceivably greater re- 

 moteness, as it would seem, through the straggling components 

 of the other, but both, perhaps, of similar constitution and 

 arrangement. The earlier ideas of Herschel I. as to the con- 

 struction of the heavens would have led us to suppose that if 

 we could travel with the velocity of light to the nearer of these 

 clusters, we might still find the second no larger or brighter 

 than the first now appears to us, while our own sun behind us, and 

 all his attendant system, had faded into one of those minute 

 points, whose aggregation alone renders them perceptible to 

 the unaided eye. But further discoveries have thrown doubt 

 upon these speculations, which, however magnificent, were 

 premature ; and we are now obliged to admit that with regard 

 to absolute and relative distances in the starry heavens our data 

 are few, — our fully reliable ones fewer still. 



The neighbourhood of these clusters is rich and beautiful, 

 being a portion of the galaxy. Propus itself, a yellow star, is 

 closely preceded by a pretty 9 or 10 mag. triplet, combined 

 with still smaller points • some way further in the same direc- 

 tion is an interesting group, and n of this latter a fine open 

 pair, about 7 and 7| mag. y Geminorum, an orange star, the 

 next visible to the naked eye sf Propus, will guide us to a very 

 remarkable coloured star, less than 1° n p. It is 6 Tauri, 

 marked 6 mag. in the S. D. U. K. maps, but very small for that 

 class; its fiery red hue, like that of Antares upon a small 

 scale, makes it an interesting object. 



If we now pass up the galaxy a considerable distance from 

 this region, we shall find, in an extended portion of it before 

 we reach the bright star Gapella, three clusters worthy of a 

 search, which, however, must be the more careful as they 

 are not in distinctly marked positions. We must first draw a 

 line from Aldebaran through /3 Tauri, and then bend it a little 

 northwards, in the direction of Gapella ; this will point out 6 



* It should be noticed that these two objects, 35 M, and 17 H VI, though not 

 their designations, have changed places in the larger maps of the S. D. IT. K., which 

 are, generally speaking, very free from error. While correcting the mistakes of 

 others, I would beg permission to do the same by my own. I have subsequently 

 ascertained that the aperture of the Greenwich object-glass, referred to in the 

 No. for December, 1862, p. 374, is 11£ instead of 12f inches ; and in the descrip- 

 tion of the great Nebula in Andromeda, published in our number for December 

 last, p. 349, where it is stated that no confirmation of the stellar symptoms showed 

 by the Earl of Rosse's 3-feet speculum was known to have been obtained with the 

 larger reflector, it should have been added, that in this instrument the nucleus has 

 that granular appearance which indicates resolvability. 



