These are truly astounding. Sir William Herschel estimated the distance
of the annular nebula between Beta and Gamma Lyræ to be from our system
950 times that of Sirius; and a globular cluster about 5½° south-east
of Beta Sir William computed to be one thousand three hundred billions
of miles from our system. Again, in Scutum Sobieski is one nebula in
the shape of a horseshoe; but which, when viewed with high magnifying
power, presents a different appearance. Sir William Herschel estimated
this nebula to be 900 times farther from us than Sirius. In some parts
of its vicinity he observed 588 stars in his telescope at one time;
and he counted 258,000 in a space 10° long and 2½° wide. There is a
globular cluster between the mouths of Pegasus and Equuleus, which
Sir William Herschel estimated to be 243 times farther from us than
Sirius. Caroline Herschel discovered in the right foot of Andromeda
a nebula of enormous dimensions, placed at an inconceivable distance
from us: it consists probably of myriads of solar systems, which, taken
together, are but a point in the universe. The nebula about 10° west of
the principal star in Triangulum is supposed by Sir William Herschel
to be 344 times the distance of Sirius from the earth, which would be
the immense sum of nearly seventeen thousand billions of miles from our
planet.