"
THE CASTLE, PARSONSTOWN,
_1848, Aug. 29_.
After tea it was voted that the night was likely to be fine, so we all
turned out. The night was uncertain: sometimes entirely clouded,
sometimes partially, but objects were pretty well seen when the sky
was clear: the latter part was much steadier. From the interruption by
clouds, the slowness of finding with and managing a large instrument
(especially as their finding apparatus is not perfectly arranged) and
the desire of looking well at an object when we had got it, we did not
look at many objects. The principal were, Saturn and the Annular
Nebula of Lyra with the 3-feet; Saturn, a remarkable cluster of stars,
and a remarkable planetary nebula, with the 6-feet. With the large
telescope, the evidence of the quantity of light is prodigious. And
the light of an object is seen in the field without any colour or any
spreading of stray light: and it is easy to see that the vision with a
reflecting telescope may be much more perfect than with a
refractor. With these large apertures, the rings round the stars are
insensible. The planetary nebula looked a mass of living and intensely
brilliant light: this is an object which I do not suppose can be seen
at all in our ordinary telescopes.
Pages:
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328