St. Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1845-1863, 1858-10-07

minutve globe are honored with visits from
these heavenly bodies, 50 plainly discernable to
the naked eye. as Is the one now careering i'll
the Western sky.
o. NJ. Mitchell Of the Cincinnati Observable
~. communicates ~ the Daily Gazette, very
interesting paper regarding the Comet which
now makes fine display, and assFacts so
many admirers. Il was discovered by Profess
Sor Donate, Of Florence Italy. nearly four
months ago. and for a large portion Of the
time since il WAS detected. has becn-steaalily
approaching the earth, and i'm a direction So
nearly coincid.ut with the visual ray. that but
for the reliable computations Of astronomers,
might well excite anticipations of some fearful
collision with our planet Indeed, through
out the present month it seems Ia have been
pluEging downward 50 exactly toward the
earth that it scarcely changed its apparent
place among the fixe,l stars 10y quantity lar
ger than two VI three times the diAmetcr Of the
moon.
1t will reach its nearest approach tn the sun
in few days. It's brillian:y will increase
rapidly up tn the close Of the first week in Oc-
tUbcr, when i: will put Oh It's most splendid
appearance and will then rival in grandeur
the famous comet Of HALEY, At its last return
in 1890.
This comet, Professor Mitchell says, "will
soon commence to change DIRECTION at first
slowly, afterwards more rapidly. as seen
from the earth. when swcenilA swiftly round
the sun it will re gain those distant regions Of
space wherein vast proportion asxits orbit
lies far beyond the reach Of
I'm"
On the evelIins If the 2jth Of Scpt-m-
Der the appearance of the comet, in the great
refractnr Of the Cincinnati Observatory, WAS
especially interesting The central portion,
or nucleus, WAS examined with powers vary
ing from one hundred to five hundred, with
out presenting any evidence Of we'll de-
fined planetary disc 1t was a brilliant glow
Of light, d..rtihg aud flashing forward in the
direction Of the motion towards the sun, and
leaving the region behind III comparative OBJ
SECURITY. But the most wonderful physical
feature presented was portiDH Of nearly
circular neL"lous ring, with its vcrtex direct
Ell toward the sun, the bright nucleus being
in the centre. while the imperfect ring swept
more than half round the luminous centre.
This nebulurh ring resembled Those which
sometimes escape from steam-plPe, but
did not exhibit the appearance wfich ought
to be presented by hollow hemSpherical
envclup Of nehulous matter
There was an evident concentration of light
in the central portions Of the ring, while, III
the case of hollow envelope, the brightest
portion should be at the outer edge. BY mi
crometrical measurement, the distance from the
central point to the circumference of the ring
was found to be about nine thousand miles.
This would give a diameter of eighteen thou
sand miles in Case the ring was entire. Similar
measurements made on the evening Of the 2Gth
of September. indicated decided increase in
the radius Of the ring which WAS now not less
than twelve thousand miles i'll length. On the
same evening noticed the fact that the lurni-
nous cnvenp di6 not blend itself into the head
portion nf the tail. but appeared somewhat to
penetrate into this ncbulouS mass, especially
on the upper part, presenting the appearance
nf about 300 degrees OF spiral. The tail on
the 25th was decidedly brighter and better de-
fired on the upper than on the lower portion.
while on the evening of the 26th there was
ness, especially near the head Of the comet
Through tic telescope, and near the heal the
tail presented the appearance Of hollow ne
bulOus envc"p, under the form Of \ parabalQid
Of revolution, the elges being bffe,tcsf and
well defined while there WAS \ manifest fading
away of light toward the central region
Though the vast depth of nebulnlIS matter
this wonderful appendagc the
lainte;t telescope stars shonc with undiminish-
ell brightness"
.'NO enc can gaze on this gigantic object, in .
all its misty splendor, without deep impress ,
sion that the eye is resting on mass OF nebu- !!
lous matter precisely such as the nchuar theo- !
nv of La Place supposcs to have been the
prmor,lial condition of our sun and all its at
tendant planets, and from which chaotic con-
iition this beautiful system OF revolving worlds I
has been evoked by the action Of single law. .
The only comet which has presented an APP
pearance resembling the one now visible is the
one known as Halley'S Comet, ~ seen by Sir
William IIerSchel and Others in its return in
1896. There is a marked difference between
the two: That while the envclop of Hallcy's
Comet is described as a hemispherlcal hallow
cnvelnp, this shows m~re the shape of a ne5u-
luuS ring: there is faint misty light, or irreg-
ular outline, but no: TO he mistaken by even
casual observer"