386 Clusters and Jtiebidce. 



43. Gen. Cat. 3453.— M. 53. " A highly compressed ball 

 of stars/' Sm. 11 — 15m.; blazing in centre. H. calls it a 

 most beautiful cluster, "with, curved appendages, like the 

 short claws of a crab, running out from the main body /' 5' 

 in diam., a few Stars 12 mag., the rest of the smallest size, end 

 innumerable. But to see it thus requires considerable advan- 

 tages. With 3-fu inches I found it neither very large nor 

 bright, and not very resolvable; the 9 \ -inch mirror, however, 

 masters it, showing not much central compression and many 

 outliers, among' which, as in the case of M. 3, are many of the 

 brighter stars, there being evidently several magnitudes. A 

 low power shows a pretty open pair s. Sm.'s remark upon 

 this cluster may well be transcribed here : " the contemplation 

 of so beautiful an object cannot but set imagination to work, 

 though the mind may soon be lost in astonishment at the 

 stellar dispositions of the great Creator and Maintainer. Thus, 

 in reasoning by analogy, these compressed globes of stars 

 confound conjecture as to the modes in which the mutual 

 attractions are prevented from causing the universal destruc- 

 tion of their system." 



While on the subject of nebulas, we may mention that a 

 suspicion may perhaps be entertained of some variation in the 

 dark rifts or (i canals " discovered by Bond in the Great 

 Nebula of Andromeda (Int. Obs. IV., 346). When trying an 

 8-inch silver-on- glass speculum by Mr. With, 1864, Aug. ol, I 

 have noted " both- canals traceable, though very feebly, for a 

 long distance." During the past winter I have been unable to 

 make them out to any certainty with my 9.j;-inch mirror, 

 which, though its figure is not yet quite complete, is competent 

 to show a black division in 7 2 Andromcdce ; and I find that the 

 experience has been similar of Mr. Matthews with J 0^--inches, 

 and of Mr. With in the use of a 1 2-i-inch mirror of very fine 

 quality. This point certainly deserves attention. It has been 

 suggested by the latter observer, that a. rotation of the whole 

 mass would be capable of producing such a result. Were its 

 structure clearly gaseous, change would be less surprising; 

 but Huggins finds a continuous spectrum. It is true, however, 

 that its red end is wanting, and that it is evidently crossed 

 either by bright or dark lines; and these peculiarities, which 

 are common to it, more or less, with 1949 (M. 81), 1950 (M. 

 82),* and the well-known and brilliant M. 13 (in Hercules), 

 have naturally led to a suspicion on the part of that eminent 

 observer, noticed in a previous number, that the apparent 

 stars of some -clusters may not be of what we commonly 

 understand as a stellar character — -that is, analogous to our 



* Int. Obs. VI., 348. 



