Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 3.djvu/586

570 mere rudiment." Strange outlying wisps and streamers of light were seen, extending far out into space. Yet more strange seemed the internal constitution of the object. So strange, indeed, did the nebula appear, "so unlike what had hitherto been known of collections of stars," that Sir John Herschel considered the evidence afforded by its appearance as sufficient to warrant the conclusion of a non-stellar substance.

But this eminent astronomer obtained a yet better view of the great nebula when he transported to the Cape of Good Hope an instrument equal in power to that which he had applied to the northern heavens. In the clear skies of the Southern Hemisphere the nebula shines with a splendor far surpassing that which it has in northern climes. It is also seen far higher above the horizon. Thus the drawing which Sir J. Herschel was able to execute during his three years' residence at the Cape is among the best views of the great nebula that have ever been taken. But, even under these favorable circumstances, Sir John records that" the nebula, through his great reflector, showed not a symptom of resolution."

Then Lassell turned his powerful mirror, two feet in diameter, upon the unintelligible nebula. But, though he was able to execute a remarkable drawing of the object, he could discern no trace of stellar constitution.

In 1845 Lord Rosse interrogated the great nebula with his three-feet mirror. Marvellous were the complexity and splendor of the object revealed to him, but not the trace of a star could be seen.

The end was not yet, however. Encouraged by the success of the three-feet telescope, Lord Rosse commenced the construction of one four times as powerful. After long and persistent labors, and at a cost, it is said, of £30,000, the great Parsonstown reflector, with its wonderful sis-feet speculum, was directed to the survey of the heavens. At Christmas, 1845, while the instrument was yet incomplete, and in unfavorable weather, the giant tube was turned toward the Orion nebula. Prof. Nichol was the first who saw the mysterious object as pictured by the great mirror. Although the observation was not successful so far as the resolution of the nebula was concerned, yet Nichol's graphic account of the telescope's performance is well worth reading:

"Strongly attracted in youth by the lofty conceptions of Herschel," he writes, "I may be apt to surround the incident I have to narrate with feelings in so far of a personal origin and interest; but, unless I greatly deceive myself, there are few who would view it otherwise than I. With an anxiety natural and profound, the scientific world watched the examination of Orion by the six-feet mirror; for the result had either to confirm Herschel's hypothesis in so far as human insight ever could confirm it, or unfold among the stellar groups a variety of constitution not indicated by those in the neighborhood of