Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1838-05-24

years. hno wc have every reasnn to believe
That the nchula of Hercules is at n much
greater distance from us even than this
What then must have been the magnitude
oi body SO great ns to he visible to the
unassistcd eye Of an individual on this
earth, III II distance so inconcsivablc? Had
all the celebrated comets Of antiquity. and
all that havo been observed in modern
times, been combined, they would no, have
formed one that 'onld have been seen over
one hundreth part the distance. No comet
mas ever yet been seen as far oil as the orb
OF Saturn, with the best telescopes, and few
an lar as Mars: and what must have been
the angular velocity of the comet, irindeed
IL was Il comet, which he saw. 80 have
swept over such vast section Of the hea-
vcns' and that too in perhaps less than one
minute "f time! II was certainly the first
heavenly body whose angular velocity was
sufficiently great to hc appreciated by the
naked eye; for the angular motion Of a hca-
.veniy body must equal 20 degrees per hour
IN order to he visible; and no comet whose
velocity has been recorded, has ever exceed
CD iourth ot this distance per hour. Ac-
cord,ng to Regiomontanus, the comet Of
l4l2 moved over an arc Of the heavens Of
I2O degrees in one day. Brydone observ
Ell comet at Palermo, in 1870, which
passed through SO degrees of great circle
in tho heavens in "a hours, and tho great
comet Of 1850 swept half round the sun in
~ hours aud half, moving mt the amazing
rate of $4,000 miles an hour; and, accord
ing to Mrs. Somerville, if its enormous CEN
trifugal force had ceased when passing its
Pcrihclion, it would have fallen to the sun
IN hhn,t three minutes. rs it was then only
$4,000 miles from his surface. BUT if the
not, ,Iok., T..l1
been combined and given to one, it's velocity
even then would have hecn as the nurterng
Of a vampire TO the eagles dart from his
azure heights, when compared to the one
which your correspondent saw lie far
ther states, that it threw n glare about the
spectator equal TO tha, Of a candle. The
mus luminous comet that ever appeared
perhaps on earth. was the one that made
It's appearance 4:5 years before Christ, and
just after the death Of Julius Cnsar, which
could he seen in daylight with the naked
eye, and was supposed to have appeared
again in LOG. and then rcsemblcd The sun
in brightness. Another appeared in 14O2,
so brilliant as to be seen at MONDAY The
great comet Of 1911, shonc with n light onlv
equal 70 onc-tcnth the light or the moon
But If all these comets, with our sun in the
midst of them, were placed as far from us
as the nc''ula in the constellation Hercules,
thrv would NOT shell one hundrcth part the
light around vour correspondent, that his
comet did. lie says, too that his opinion
oXtravagant IA it NAV appear. is by no
means Mt variance with the opinions of
some of the ahlrsi modern astronomers.-
He quotes Professor Enke's observatinns
upon the periodical retur"s Of the comet
hearing his name. and Sir John Herschcl's
observations npOn the same comet. in iusti-
fca'inn Of his conclusions. He saws that
the latter Of these gentlemen adopts the
generally received opinion, tha, the pro-
cess Of dimnuton which that comet ia un-
dcrgoing. and consequent diminution Of
centrifugal force. it will ultimately fall 10
the sun unless, previously dissipated. Now
think your correspondent, iscertainly mis-
taken in the conclusion al which nc has ar
rived from Sir John HcrsclleIs remarks:
for hr surely never intended to mean that
the diminn1ion ofa heavenly body, moving
in vacuo. could diminish its centrifugal
force. 1t is true that the comets Of Enkc
and Biela, are both gradually approaching
The sun. Their centrifugal forces are I'M
drrgoins constant but gradual tlininu-
tion. and consequently every revolution tli-
nilnshes The diameter Of their orbits, so thai
they must ultimately fall to the sun; hut
then this gradual diminuion of centrifugal
force which they are both eXpericncine, is
ny no means attributable to anv di,ninulon
III their size. hui is universally ascribed to
the resisting medium thrnuo olr which they
move, and is regarded as the highest cvi-
dence OF the existence Of such q medium.
PHANTAsMAGoRIA VERA.