The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-24 00:00:00

GREAT COMET

___
-----.
Sir John Herschel has published the following :
" Sir,--1 wish to direct the attention of your astronomical
scif the horizon.nd
readers to the fact, which I think hardly admits of a doubt
of a comet of enormous magnitude being in the course of it;
progress through our systen:eapnodriast, parnedseitiitlenioict far arstfrreoti. its
perihelion. Its tail, for such lcannot doubt it to be, was eon
spieuously visible, both last night and the night before, as eon-
perihelion.
luminous streak, commencing close beneath the stars
kappa :and lambda And
gamma
amg
obliquely e
lt a (
a n
d) westward
E ri
d a o i ,
ti
1 ldownwards,lost
in the
v a betweenpou;
direction of it, prolonged on a celestial globe, passes
it
tt is
cisely through the place of the Sun in the eliptic at the pre-
Thesent time, a circunistance which appears conclusive as tPo'iets-
lion of the tail actually visible on Frida
come tic
tnhaetuproer
ing was fully 30 degrees in length, and the head must
been beneath the horizon, which would add at least 2;l;lailve
grecs to the length, it is evident that, if really a cornet,.-one of rare first rate magnitude ; and if it be not one
a In°'"ere, of a nature
even yet more remarkable.-1 have the honour to
some phenomenon beyond the earth's t ,
your obedient servant, be, sir,
.. _

" J. F. W. HERSCHEL

conimu-
for such
remarkable event
" Collingwood, March 19.
Towardsle _
:: P.S.
tHpa.md
.t:i:iraerlacehenwa.—nyTphoesttaillasotf nuilgeht:orathiets,
ication would have been made a day earlier.
haze, and holding very near the same
must now assuredly be, is again visible, though much ob-
itpaper of Friday last says :—•4 A maPosition."
scoredi a bs
re is
an immense comet appeared suddenly in the h'even o'clock
the evening of yesterday.
tail, which is wide-spread, and perfectly marked,izon. The
over a space of more than 60 degrees. Leaving extended
it crossed under an angle of 40 degrees, this Orion, which
gradually became invisible in the horizon, wl •
magnificent tail
der the influence of twilight. The nucleus itch was still un-
not visible." of the comet was
The same luminous appearance was
on Saturday night. The nucleus was ngain visible at Paris
tail or luminous body alluded to occupiedot erceived, but the
degrees of the heavens. The Parisian at least 50 or 60
taken by surprise, as none of them had calculated
are quite
pearance of this comet, if comet it be calculated on the ap-
tory was in full activity onatu be. The
The Royal Observa-
shortly expect to be made acquaintr aY
.night, and we may
ed
observations. with the result of the
The Bristol Journal of Saturday
singular meteor was observed hi has the following .—" A
half-Past eight, which extended f
the heavens last night about
sky,
shedding a line of brilliant rom 20 to 30 degrees in the
of the sun. A corresPondeti light, following the direction
a comet was observed from it saYs that about eight days ago
time, and the supposition is, arid over the sun in the day-
was the tail of a comet." that the meteor seen last night
Sir J. South
published a letter in the Times of Wednesday
tient train of light which previous, in which he says—" the bril-
daY, was seen here on natiee
is given in the Times of this
Friday evening at a little after 7, and
had very much the
1811. its highest '
appearance of the tail of the comet of
theta Leporis, and point, when I first saw it, nearly reached
nus, became invisible to through the constellation Erida-
to me from interposed trees when about
two degrees from the horizon. More than 45 degrees of tail
, stars
were measurable • of the sth magnitude were visible
of 21 inchesya the naked eye, and with a 42-inch achromatic
through it b
At 7h. 33m.p2e2rtsuecre, those even of the Bth were perceptible.
(sidereal time) a bri ht meteor issued
from the very tip of the
the tail. No trace of the above light
could be detected here either Saturday, Sunday, or Monday
nights,
in consequence of cloudy weather. This evening
(Tuesday), at about ten minutes before eight, the clouds
cleared away ; but no vestige of the train could be perceived
in the neighbourhood ad illumined on Friday night
but a diffused and amorphous light, commencing at the
Pleiades, and spreading over the entire constellation Aries,
even through the haze, was too conspicuous to escape obser-
tion. If this be the tail of the comet, it indicates a very
rapid motion of it northward. By a letter which I received
yesterday from Mr. Shorts, of Christchurch, liami shire, he
has seen it earlier than any one I have vet heard of, inasmuch
as he observed it three nights previous to the date of his
letter, which is the 19th instant; hence he saw it Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday.
The Birmingham Herald of Wednesday last says that this
" luminous apparance has been observed by several gentle-
men in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, who have no
doubt that it is similar to that described by Sir J . Herschel.
A correspondent, who has favoured us with a communica-
tion upon the subject, says, ' On Friday, the l7th instant, at
about eight o'clock in the evening. I observed an extraordi
nary luminous appearance in the heavens, reaching an altitu altitude
the horizon op the south-west, at which point it seemed to
to
diminish in breadth."'
Sir J • Herschell, in a letter in yesterday's Times, dated
vrood, says—" On Monday night being clout! • the
Colling
tail of the comet was not visible here. On Tuesday '
night it
was very bright its direction and breadth are as •
before, but,
perhaps, some trifle curved, the convexity being
Be that as it may, the line of the well defined "wards'
part, or arts,
0f the tail has evidently advanced northward
nearly through, but still a little below iota I s, and passes
extremity has advanced in right ascension, Aiporis ; also its
extend as far as the intermediate poit a ;111 seems
now to
Orionis, and (zeta), or, perhaps, even between knappa
probability, therefore, is, that we shall eta) ,Leporis. The
soon see the head."