rfectly steady. The weight of the entire, although amounting
to fifteen tons, was so skilfully counterpoised, that the tube could
with ease be raised or depressed by two men working a windlass. Its
horizontal range was limited by the lofty walls erected for its support
to about ten degrees on each side of the meridian; but it moved
vertically from near the horizon through the zenith as far as the pole.
Its construction was of the Newtonian kind, the observer looking into
the side of the tube near its upper end, which a series of galleries and
sliding stages enabled him to reach in any position. It has also, though
rarely, been used without a second mirror, as a "Herschelian" reflector.

The splendour of the celestial objects as viewed with this vast
"light-grasper" surpassed all expectation. "Never in my life," exclaimed
Sir James South, "did I see such glorious sidereal pictures."[327] The
orb of Jupiter produced an effect compared to that of the introduction
of a coach-lamp into the telescope;[328] and certain star-clusters
exhibited an appearance (we again quote Sir James South) "such as man
before had never seen, and which for its magnificence baffles all
description." But it was in the examination of the nebulae that the
superiority of the new instrument was most strikingly displayed. A large
number of these misty objects, which the utmost powers of Herschel's
specula had failed to resolve into stars, yielded at once to the
Parsonstown reflector; while many others showed under entirely changed
forms through the disclosure of previously unseen details of structure.

One extremely curious result of the increase of light was the abolition
of any sharp distinction between the two classes of "annular" and
"planetary" nebulae. Up to that time, only four ring-shaped systems--two
in the northern and two in the southern hemisphere--were known to
astronomers; they were now reinforced by five of the planetary kind, the
discs of which were observed to be centrally perforated; while the
definite margins visible in weaker instruments were replaced by ragged
edges or filamentous fringes.

Still more striking was the discovery of an entirely new and most
remarkable species of nebulae. These were termed "spiral," from the more
or less regular convolutions, resembling the whorls of a shell, in which
the matter composing them appeared to be distributed. The first and most
conspicuous specimen of this class was met with in April, 184