[venus (Lydia)]

The book is in "Mint" condition too, interesting.

I have a "Ninth" edition Encyclopaedia Britannica and "Volume 2" has "Astronomy"
with this interesting drawing by Herschel of the nebula in the "Sword Handle of Orion" as seen by him through his 20ft reflector in 1824.


Herschel gives an interesting description of the nebula......
"I know not how to describe it better than by comparing it to a curdling liquid, or a surface strewed over with flocks of wool, or to the breaking up of a "mackerel" sky when the clouds of which it consists begin to assume a cirrous appearance. It is not very unlike the mottling of the sun's disk, only (if I may so express myself) the grain is much coarser, and the intervals darker; and the flocculi, instead of being generally round, are drawn into little wisps. They present, however, no appearance of being composed of small stars, and their aspect is altogether different from resolvable nebulae. In the latter we fancy that we see stars, or that could we strain our sight a little more, we should see them; but the former suggest no idea of stars, but rather of something quite distinct from them."