144 ASTRONOMY. 
peautiful comets, namely, those of February, 1848, and May, 1845, have 
appeared and been carefully examined. 
61. We turn now to several interesting objects of the starry heavens, 
which are represented on the left and right sides of pl. 8. Fig. 1 is a 
crowded group of stars of irregular outline, seen in the constellation of 
Hercules, under a right ascension 248° 45’, and north declination of 36° 48’. 
Stars of the 10th to the 15th magnitude stand very close together, the 
diameter of the whole amounting to about 8 minutes. 
We have already referred in general terms, in sections 15 and 16, to the 
groups or clusters of stars, as also to nebulous stars and nebule. Fig. 2 
gives a representation of a beautiful circular group of stars in Aquarius, 
resolvable near the centre by a good telescope, and seen under 321° 15! 
right ascension, and 1° 34’ south declination. Towards the centre it is 
very clear and uniformly brilliant, although the stars do not stand thicker 
here than towards the border; the central brightest part amounts to six 
seconds of diameter. 
Many groups of stars are fan-shaped, as in fig. 3 or fig. 4, which latter occurs 
in the constellation Cancer. The round nebula (fig. 5) is found in Ursa 
Major. In Gemini, under right ascension 1093°, and north declination 26° 
26’, there is a nebula (fig. 6) whose central star has a great, irregularly 
oval atmosphere. In Leo Major, 1672° right ascension, and 413° north 
declination, may be perceived a star (fig. '7) in the middle of an elliptical 
nebula, very much pointed at the ends. ‘Two other nebule (jigs. 8 and 9) 
occur in Monoceros ; one of them (fig. 9) of right ascension 973°, and south 
declination 8° 53’, is a star of the 12th magnitude, with a luminous 
nebulous train of about one minute in length, not unlike the tail of a 
comet. 
Two and even more stars are often seen enveloped in one nebulous mass, 
evidently belonging to them both, standing in the two foci or the two 
vertices of the elliptical nebula. One of this kind is to be met in Canes 
Venatici, under right ascension 192?°, and north declination 35° 47’, where 
the two stars (fig. 10) are of the 10th magnitude; in Sagittarius there is a 
bright elliptical nebula (fig. 11), with a star in each of the foci. In 
the constellation Auriga, a nebula with three stars is observable, which is 
round (fig. 12) according to some, but triangular (jig. 18) according to 
others. Fig. 14 represents the great nebula in Andromeda, figured also 
from another view on pl. 13, fig. 10. 
The Aurora. Mock Suns and Mock Moons. 
62. Although the phenomena now to be referred to, belong more properly 
to the department of meteorology, to which a special section will be devoted, 
yet they cannot remain entirely unnoticed under the present head. The 
Aurora, improperly called northern light, as it appears at the south pole as 
well as the north, is the name of a luminous, often circular meteor, which 
sometimes appears in the vicinity of the magnetic pole of the earth, and 
144 
