402. _Cloudy Stars_ are so called from their misty appearance. They look like dim Stars to the naked eye; but through a telescope they appear broad illuminated parts of the sky; in some of which is one Star, in others more. Five of these are mentioned by _Ptolemy_. 1. One at the extremity of the right hand of _Perseus_. 2. One in the middle of the _Crab_. 3. One unformed, near the Sting of the _Scorpion_. 4. The eye of _Sagittarius_. 5. One in the head of _Orion_. In the first of these appear more Stars through the telescope than in any of the rest, although 21 have been counted in the head of _Orion_, and above 40 in that of the _Crab_. Two are visible in the eye of _Sagittarius_ without a telescope, and several more with it. _Flamsteed_ observed a cloudy Star in the bow of _Sagittarius_, containing many small Stars: and the Star _d_ above _Sagittary_’s right shoulder is encompassed with several more. Both _Cassini_ and _Flamsteed_ discovered one between the _Great_ and _Little Dog_, which is very full of Stars visible only by the telescope. The two whitish spots near the South Pole, called the _Magellanic Clouds_ by Sailors, which to the bare eye resemble part of the Milky-Way, appear through telescopes to be a mixture of small Clouds and Stars. But the most remarkable of all the cloudy Stars is that in the middle of _Orion’s Sword_, where seven Stars (of which three are very close together) seem to shine through a cloud, very lucid near the middle, but faint and ill defined about the edges. It looks like a gap in the sky, through which one may see (as it were) part of a much brighter region. Although most of these spaces are but a few minutes of a degree in breadth, yet, since they are among the fixed Stars, they must be spaces larger than what is occupied by our solar System; and in which there seems to be a perpetual uninterrupted day among numberless Worlds which no human art ever can discover. [Sidenote: Changes in the Heavens.] 403. Several Stars are mentioned by antient Astronomers, which are not now to be found; and others are now visible to the bare eye which are not recorded in the antient catalogues. _Hipparchus_ observed a new Star about 120 years before CHRIST; but he has not mentioned in what part of the Heavens it was seen, although it occasioned his making a catalogue of the Stars; which is the most antient that we have. [Sidenote: New Stars.] The first _New Star_ that we have any good account of, was discovered by _Cornelius Gemma_ on the 8th of _November_ A. D. 1572, in the Chair of Cassiopea. It surpassed _Sirius_ in brightness and magnitude; and was seen for 16 months successively. At first it appeared bigger than _Jupiter_ to some eyes, by which it was seen even at mid-day: afterwards it decayed gradually both in magnitude and lustre, until _March_ 1573, when it became invisible.