Clusters, Nebulce, and Occultations. 351 



of 5 full moons by 3 ; so as to involve, whether really or only 

 apparently, the two companion nebula3; and what concep- 

 tion can we form of a magnitude so vast as would "be 

 indicated by this outspreading of a mass of distant suns ? or 

 of a brilliancy so vivid as the central portion must possess, 

 to impress itself from such remoteness upon the unaided eye ? 

 There is, indeed, no impossibility in either alternative ; nothing 

 is too great or too magnificent for Omnipotence ; but still the 

 question naturally presents itself, whether this glorious nebula 

 is really composed of stars at all? The doubt is not obtruded 

 upon us, as in the case of that in Orion, by well-grounded 

 suspicions of change ; but if the existence of luminous haze 

 were once established in that or any other instance, we should 

 naturally look to it as the easiest explanation of the present diffi- 

 culty. The final solution must, however, be sought in Orion, 

 not here, where the gradations of light are less sudden, the 

 features less marked, and the stars less brilliant, and hitherto 

 not identified or delineated. But, possibly, results as yet un- 

 looked for may even here be in store for instruments such as 

 the 18| -inch achromatic of Clark, the 20 -inch of Buckingham, 

 or the 25 -inch on which Cooke is said to be at present engaged. 



We shall next proceed to another nebula, in its general 

 aspect very dissimilar to the last : — 



4. The Nebula in the Triangle. — The little constellation so 

 called, which is pretty well marked out by its stars, lies, in a 

 general sense, between 7 Andromedce and a Arietis : its lucida, 

 a, at the apex of the triangle, being however far advanced 

 towards a line joining the latter star and /3 Andromedce. Rather 

 more than one-third of the distance along this hue, reckoning 

 from the upper end, we shall readily detect our object. It 

 was discovered by Messier in 1764, and is designated as 33 M., 

 or 131 H. -, and Herschel II. sees it " enormously large, very 

 gradually brighter in the middle/'' the diffused nebulosity 

 extending 15' s, and nearly as much n from the centre. It 

 has, he observes, " irregularities of light, and even feeble sub- 

 ordinate nuclei and many small stars." His father's Y. 17, 

 he thinks probably part of it, and this portion, according to 

 Smyth, was seen mottled by Jp. with his 7-foot reflector in 

 1 783, and afterwards resolved with larger telescopes into stars, 

 " the merest points imaginable/ - ' The admiral describes it as 

 large and distinct, but faint, followed by five stars, between 

 which and the object there is an indistinct gleam of mere 

 nebulous matter. The peculiarity of this nebula is its visibility 

 even in very small instruments, combined with especial dim- 

 ness under what might be supposed more favourable circum- 

 stances : thus I could detect it with the finder of my old 

 achromatic, and saw it well with 64 upon its aperture of 



