Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-10-08
From the Boston Traveller.
GREAT COMETS.

pole.
The first comet o! great magnitude men
toned in history is the one which appeared
about the time of the birth of Mithridates,
and remained visible 70 days. Its brilliancy
is COMPARED TO that of the sun and its tail
covered a fourth part of the heavens. The
Chinese mention this comet in the eastern
heavens, and describe its tail as extending
past the zenith.
The comet of 1864 is described as being of
remarkable size and briliancy. In the au-
tumn Of that year, when the head Of the
comet was Just visible above the eastern hor
lion, in the carly morning sky, the tail
stretched ont past the mid-heaven towards
the west The Chinese describe the tail as
upwards of one hundred degrees long an
curved in the form Of sabre. 1t moved
from Leo. through Cancer and Gcmini, into
Orion. 1t disappeared on the night Of the
ID Of October Of that year, and the supersti-
ton of the times connected it with the death
of Pope Urban ", who died that day This
comet is supposed to be the same with that
of 1856, known as Charles ", and whose
return is now looked for by astronomers.
In the spring of l4o2, if we may rely on
the accounts of eyewitness, there appeared
one OF the finest comets on record. 1t was
seen in Italy between the West and North,
with Il tail direct towards the north
east. Its brightness was such that the
light Of the sun did not prevent it from be-
ing seen at monday. 1t produced great
terror among the ignorant, who considered
it the precursor Of many evils to men in
general.
The most celebrated comet of the fifteenth
century appeared in 1872. In January of
that wear it was observed to have IL tail of
prodigious length and presenting altogether
Il spectacle very horrible and caused uniyer-
sal dread. The observations OF Rcgiomon-
Janus. who discovered it on the 18th Of Janu-
airy, enabled DR.. HALEY to compute the ele-
ments Of its orbit. 1t came very near our
globe on the DIST of that month, being less
than three and a half millions of miles dis
tant. 1t was visible in full daylight, and
| its tail stretched across the heavens.
The comet of 1877 is especially interesting
| on account of having been the first whose
| distance from the earth was ascertaincd
| Tycho Brahc determined from observation its
| parallax, which resulted in showing the
| comet to be far beyond the moon. This ex-
| plodcd the notion of Aristotle and other
| Greecian philosophers that they were mere
eight clouds floating in our atmosphere.
| On the day of discovery, the comet had a
curved tail twenty-five degrees long. In the
tllllCsc ullltlS, lllt cbllltl Is IT'S VI
a blush color with a white vapor ten degrees
in length.
In 1918, Kepler discovered a comet, near
the end of November, which exhibited cor
ruscations in its tail, of upwards of one hun
bred degrees long.-LOngimontanus des-
crbes it scum ribrdtionc enOrmi" The
comet of 1862, in the judgement of 1lcvc-
Illus and others, almost cqualled the moon in
size, and was of pale lvid color.
On the 18th day of November, 1850, God
frey Kirch, at Coburg in Saxony, discovered
a comet in the constellation Leo. Two days
after its perihelion passage, which occurred
on the 18th of December, it became visible
in the evening sky, and was an object OF
universal attention, the train extending over
the vast arc of the sky, frequently appear
ing from 20 to 90 degrees in length and SEN
sibly curved at the extremity, so as to re-
semble an enormous sabre. The nucleus is
described as a confused mass of light, not
particularly bright to the naked eye, but in
a telescope resembled burning coal.
This comet was observed in all parts of the
world and was last seen by Sir Isaac Newton
on the 10Th of March, 1851. Newton hay
ing devised method of representing the ap-
parent motion of comets, applied it to this
and found that the comet, at the time OF
perihelion passage, almost grazed the sun:
surface, moving with the velocity of $50 ,00C
miles in an hour. The.great comet of lS43is the
only one that has approached nearer to thai
luminary. The comets tail extended tc
more than one hundred millions of mile.
from the nucleus. Prof. Encke, after II very
elaborate investigation of the observations o.
this comet, concluded that it required nj
less than eight thousand eight hundred year:
to revolve around the sun.
The comet of l744 is regarded as the mos
splendid of the eighteenth century. In the
month of February of that year the comet
was conspicuous object in the western sky
The head on the 18th equallod Venus If
brilliancy. ChesauX declares that at one tim,
it exhibited six tails, emanating from tn,
head forming rays like a fan. This come
was an object of very great interest to tn,
astronomers of that time.
In the autumn of 1863, there was seen
remarkable comet with tail curved towards
its extremity, and one hundred degrees long
DR.. Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal of England
and Mcssier of Paris, observed it. Besse
found that this comet would probably return
in two thousand and ninety years.
Notwithstanding but little more than hal
Of the nineteenth century has run out, ther,
have appeared, already, six large comets
That of 1907 was particularly observed by
Sir William lIcrschel. 1t had well deiinec
planetary disk Of circular form, which Her
schel estimated to be not less than 53S mile
in diameter. The real length of the tail OF
the 18th Of October, was nine millions o
miles. Its direction was such, that the appa
rent length did not exceed four degrees. The
researches of Prof. Bessel assign to it a revo
luton of TIA years.
fha Of ma 4
be regarded the most famous of modern times
1t was first detected by NJ. Flaugcrgues, al
Niviers, ON the Goth of March, and remained
visible a year and half, nearly twice as long
as the longest duration of any other comet
In the autumn of 1911 the comet was within
the circle of perpetual apparition, and con
splcuous all night. The tail was longest
about the end of the first week in October; il
then extended over an arc of twenty-five de-
grces and was six degrees broad Sir William
Iierschel saw well-defned planetary disk
involved in nebulosity forming the head
The disk was of pale rudy color; the sur.
rounding nebulosity, blueish green. The
nebulosity was upwards of one million Of
miles in diameter. The real length Of the
train about the middle of October, exceeded
one hundred millions Of miles. Prof. Arge'
lander calculated that it would re-appear in
about 5000 years, This comet recedes from
the sun to distance of more than fourteen
times that of Neptune
In 1919 fine comet appeared suddenly in
the constellation Leo. Cacciatore of Palermo
assures us that it exhibited phases similar to
the moon, during part of its visibility, and
that the crescent was not always on the SAME
side of the nucleus. 1t was this comet that
Argo, by means of "A polariscope, ascertain
ed 10 shine by reflected light. The crcum-
stance of a phase, had it remained always on
the proper side. would have determined it,
In 1925, NJ Pons, at Marseiles, discover
cd comet that remained visible for nearly