The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-04-07

erperiments rrifh the PoLniseope-The Cluster IN The
TIe Penny CyeIopedia-Hisfory Of DonafTs cOmef-hs
geyiod-Ks rapid ueiopment-Progress J astronomy
IN rae United Saskatchewan Of GitbOn-cOmets no
longer subjects Of aLRm-BeaHtInL reflections Of Addi-
soa-APostrophs 10 the Comet
On the 9th of October last, | visited the Obser-
vatory at Cambridge, accompanied by the accom-
plished and efficient Vice Regent of the Ladies'
Mount Vernon Association for the State of New
York, Mary Morris Hamilton, (grand daughter
of Alexander Hamilton } then on a visit in this
neighborhood. / had asked permission the day
before of the venerable Director of the Observa-
tory, William c.. Bond, to make this visit. Even
with this precaution, it was not without hesita-
ton, that I allowed myself, for a half hour. to
divert to the qualification of n curiosity however
natural and laudabie, any of the precious mo-
ments, which, when employed by the skIllful
observer in the use of a powerful telescope, are so
important to science. No one ought to visit a
first class Observatory without remembering that,
while he is gratifying his taste by contemplating
the Heaven through a glass like the great Equa-
torial at Cambridge. he is wasting the time OF
men of the highest eminence, and misapplyIng
Ito all scientific intents) one of the two most
powerful Refractors in the world. But the temp
tation to behold this most extraordinary celestial
phenomenon, the like of which has been seen but
once before in nv day, and in all human prooa-
bilitv will not be seen again in this generation,
was 80 strong as to overcome all scrdpies OF dell
caey-
IL WAS q serene OClDDc fCAhAbS
adapted for observation. The sun set without a
cloud. and the Heavens, if less magnificent than
when hung with the gorgeous drapery which
sometimes decks the evening sky, were OF course
far better prepared for the inspection OF the Won
derful visitant. Venus was the evening star
The air was still, and free from that tremulous-
ness. which SO often disturbs observations near
the horizon. The light of the moon, new that
day. was too faint to interfere with that OF the
portentous stranger, which. in his headlong course
toward the sun, had left Arcturus five degrees
behind. and was rushing to his periheliOn, at the
rate of a hundred and thirty millions of miles an
hour.
The appearance of the Heavens as the sun
went down. and a fainter twilight diffused itself
over the sky, was most impressive the gradual
fading into obscurity of the terrestrial landscape,
at last the vanishing of all the details OF village,
field, and lake, under the broad and shadowy
wings of night, leaving nothing visible but the
larger dark masses,-spreading tree, church, and
distant line of hills. Then came the apparitlOn,
one by one, of the heavenly luminaries the thin
sharp edge of the new moon ,-Hesperus dropping
diamonds and pearls from his imperial brow
the magnificent stars of the higher magnitudes IN
this region, whose uncouth Arabic names Mlzar,
Alioth, Mirach, give so strange an aspect to the
chart of the heavens, emerging from the gloom
and then, as the night advanced, in glittering
succession those of inferior size, down to the
smallest that can be discerned by the naked eye,
till at length the whole concaye was lighted up
with its sparkling glories. 1t was an evening to
make one feel the solemn significance OF that
glorious sonnet of Blanco White:
Mysterious night when our first parent knew
Did he not trrmble for this gOodly frame,
This glorious canopy Of light and blue1
let meath a curtain Of translucent dew,
Hesperus With the host OF Heaven came,
And 10 B. creation widened in mans view
Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed
With thy beams, U sun n who could nnd,
That to such countless orbs thou mad'st US blind
Why do We then shun death with anxious STRIFE;
If light can Thus dsceire. ,chy may NOT hfe!
The great Telescope, when we went INTO the
Observatory, was in the occupation of Mr..
George p. Bond, the son and assistant of the
Director, who has already acquired n brilliant
reputation as an observer, and unites to 1T that
of IA skillful geometer. lie was at this time,
with che aid of Mr.. III. g. Fette, preparing the
materials for those magnificent drawings, which
have been engraved on steel with extreme beauty,
To illustrate Mr.. Bonds article on the Comet, in
the second and third numbers of the Z" Mathe-
NAUTICAL Monthly We willingly employed the
time till we could look through the large instru-
Inent, in gazing at the Comet with the NAKED
eve. or through a glass of ordinary power. Seen
i. in either way it was an object never to be forgot
ten. The nucleus was nearly equal to Its neigh
Dor Arcturus in brightness, and the curvIng tail
shot upward through about fifty degrees, a
length of f~orty-tive millions of miles. or half the
distance oil the carLu IEOLu ii cuH- III dluitiOn
to the principal tail of the Comet, on the evening
of the 9th, "A fainter pencil of rays streamed up
ward from the head, nearly on a line from the
sun, to Il height Of fifty degrees. passing directly
between the exterior stars OF thcS Northern
Crown This strange appendage was hardly
visible to the naked eye, except of the practiced
observer
The appearance of the Comet through the
comet-seeker was extremely beautiful, esnecially
in consequence of the brightness of the sWfs seen
through the tail, and that too very near the
nucleus. In fact, to persons not accustomed to
look through powerful glasses, and consequently
not making due allowance for their effect, in
diminishing the field of view. the Comet-seekeI
exhibits the object. as far as general effect goes,
more impressively than the great Refractor.
At length the drawings for that evening Were
completed, and we were invited in our turns t.
the observing chair, itself an admirable piece o
mechanism, the Continuance of MIR. Bond, Senior
1t would be impossible within the limits of a pa
per like this, were I otherwise qualified for the
task, to do any Justice to the appearances which
presented themselves, through the great magniher
IN the surface of the Comet and in the region
surrounding it. They are not only infinitely and
graphically described in the memoir of MIR
George p. Bond above referred to; but they ar,
Illustrated by two admirable engravipgs on steel
from drawings executed from sketches taken by
the side of the great Refractor, one by Mr.
George P. Bond, and the other by MIR. Fette
Both are beautiful; but the former appears tC
me the most admirably executed work of the kind
I have ever seen not only far beyond any
European drawing or engraving of this Comet
which has yet reached US, but superior to any
foreign drawings and engravings of a. ~eelestia
phenomena those for instance, in Sir John Her
schel's splendid work, SO the result of Astronomi
cal observations at the Cape of Good Hope
The drawings and engravings in that fine volume
though executed at the expense of a munifcent
petron, 1.-THE Duke of Northumberland, } and by
the most skillful English artsts, are inferior t.
the drawings of Mesrs. Bond and Fette, engraved
by J.. W. Watts at Boston for the Mathematical
Monthly. =.
But though it would be impossible in thi'
place, to give an adequate description of the ap
parent condition of the surface Of the Comet, al
seen through the great Telescope, some idea of il
NAV be formed from the observation, that it wa,
In = state of intense action and violent movement