New-York tribune., 1874-07-22
REMARKABLE oBuQUuY oN TIE PART OF THE
COMET.

81 the NORTH ftie
REMARKABLE oBuQUuY oy TIE PART OF THE
COMET
It's direction Of motion around the sun IS the same
IS that of the planets but the plane OF It's orbit Is
,roatly, more oblique The amount of this inc.ina
tion may be best judged by comparison. OF al the
planets excepting the asteroids Mercurys orbit has
tine greatest inclination, but that is only seven
degrees-the j0th part of circle; the orbit Of
Uranus is only inclined one degree. Pallas one OF
tbe asteroids has compared with the larger planets,
an enormously inclined orbit but CoggIa's comet
has an orbit nearly twice as much inclined a. that
f PaUas II form, an angle Of Gj degrees with the
ecptic-that IS with the plane OF the earth motion
around the sun-a plane which II extended olt TO
the fixed stars would pass through the combinations
of the zodiac
To get some notion Of these respective planes. take
a cylindrical mui-b0x. 3 inches in diameter ald IS
inches IN b! 5ht Cut it through diagonally tom
tbe TOP edge 20 the bottom edge The ellptcal line
Of the cut compared with the circle OF the bottom
will fairly represent the angle of Tue comet moiloh
"a compared with that of the earth. Similarly lLus
trated the angles of inclination OF all the planets
lexcept asteroids would be shown by cuts beginning
vitbn an inch of the bottom OF the box one side
and terminating at the bottom edge OF the DoH on
tbe other OF couIse this illustration negect5 all
derencesin in size Of the orbits, and in their relative
position except so far as the comparison oI tAe "se'
in question is concerned.
There is. however one feature in which this
orbit is similar to those OF the planets. Their
planes all slant pretty much the way, not
VARYING in this respect more than one-quarter oI
the circle. The comets plane OF motion slants
in about the same direction Il the planes Of the
planets were illustrated by Sits IN the muif box all
these Sits, including that for the comet, would starr
on the same side Finally before we dispense
with the mutf-bOx. the orbit OF the comet is
not an ellipse, as the cutting OF the box gives
it, II is either a hyperbola or paraboia, probably
the former To illustrate this figure, the unior-
innate muf-box might be again cut IN a stTal-h lne
from the highest point of the eilipse to the bottom
and the sides be opened outward. II they were
opened out 50 as to be straight, they would repre-
sent parabola if llred out further. hyperDoli'
WHY THE COMET SEEMS TO TRAVEL DoWNWAHD
ONLY.
But why if the comet was moving at tins angle
did il so long appear nearly stationary And why
does it, if now moving at an angle o. 90, to the
ecliptc 90 in a path down the heavens from near
the north pos 10 near the south pole and nearly a.
right angles to the eqnator' The poles and equator
of the heavens are merely those features OF the
earth extended out among the stars Inc
answer 10 these questions Is that the earth
has been moving forward while tho comet
was coming down its long slant; and
though the latter was travelling through far
the greater space aud with two and two-third times
the rapidity OF the earth, the latter taking 50
10 speak a shorter cut and the eastward motion
of both bodies being nearly equal, the comet ap-
peared to us 20 stay IN the same place merely
enlarging in size until It's rapid southerly motion
became apparent. As seen from the sum- the
comets path among the stars would be from north
west to southeast but the earth is moving from
west " cast about - much ~ the cOH.t !, OlI tAe