322 Dr. Herschei/s Astronomical Observations 
The 19th of January 1811, I had another critical examina- 
tion of the same object in a very clear view through the 40- 
feet telescope ; but notwithstanding the superior light of this 
instrument, I could not perceive any remains of nebulosity 
about the two small stars, which were perfectly clear, and in 
the same situation, where about thirty-seven years before I 
had seen them involved in nebulosity. 
If then the light of these three stars is thus proved to have 
undergone a visible modification in its passage through the 
nebulous matter, it follows that its situation among the star3 
is less distant from us than the largest of the three, which I 
suppose to be of the 8th or 9th magnitude. The farthest 
distance therefore, at which we can place the faintest part of 
the great nebula in Orion, to which the nebulosity surrounding 
the star belongs, cannot well exceed the region of the stars of 
the 7th or 8th magnitude, but may be much nearer ; perhaps 
it may not amount to the distance of the stars of the 3d or 2nd 
order ; and consequently the most luminous appearance of 
this nebula must be supposed to be still nearer to us. From 
the very considerable changes I have observed in the arrange- 
ment of its nebulosity, as well as from its great extent, this 
inference seems to have the support of observation ; for in 
very distant objects we cannot so easily perceive changes as 
in near ones, on account of the smaller angles w'hich both the 
objects and its changes subtend at the eye. The following 
memorandum was made when I viewed it in 1774; “ its 
“ shape is not like that which Dr. Smith has delineated in his 
“ optics, though somewhat resembling it, being nearly as in 
“ fig* 37 : from this we may infer that there are undoubtedly 
“ changes among the regions of the fixed stars ; and perhaps 
