Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1874-07-02

-
accepted.
Ccaxres !josrsea siae die on Tues
''' ''','s ! '''' week. st ''' O'Clock.
TnH Conlse ConEr,--Fron the recent
rsseasea6s = de sosu.s among .ssrono.-
ical record b pov seems very doubtful
whether thess.ing CoEet. nov nearing
the earsh = kssriy bsssning more clear
y defined. : Cogsi.'s comet ahe. ALL
Several asatssoeers writing to the papers
declare thatthis must b IN entirely diff.
fcsent eoueG Inn that discovered BY Pro-
fsasor Coesh 4 IlarsciIles % the 17ih Of
April. o. e them says that. from CON-
putations as1s Of The elements Of tia.
somsts nstisa. il nsss hsvs passed il
psrihelioo (peisI ssaresl 10 The sss) %
The 10Th in11Ist. and that Il i nov rapid
y rsssdise, lton earth and sun. Mr..
Hsary Pei -. sho . : .diligsas and
russI 61eSss, vlis0 EKC:
bvs: a .'t ssa. e-a'.
sFrom ny own observations Of June
IL and q, have conputed ito orbit
anew. and have resshed the following con-
customs: II win pass its perihsliou about
July 8, at distance from the SUN Of about
60. 000. 900 miles. On August 3. when.
according to the second orbit. Il vas to be
the brightest, the moon will fortunately be
out Of the way; but unfortunately the sun
will be in the way, SO that the comet can
not be seen in this hemisphere; and, in
stead Of being near Dcnebola. it will be
in Argo Navis. But. fortunately again,
it reaches its maximum brightness a fort
night earlier. On July 16 it will be a
little above Caster and Pollux, setting soon
after sunset. and with the new moon above
it toward the south. 1t will then be about
nine times as bright as at present. COM
putting its brightness from the position of
the nucleus; but the tail will have swept
around SO near Us ihs: it will undoubted-
ly far exceed that. The comet is now cas-
lily visible in the moonlight with . small
opera-g!ass, and, after the moon sets.
with the naked eye. Immediately after
the full moon it will be easily visible to
the naked eye in the northwest, below the
Dipper; AMI the time Of its maximum
brightness will be about July 16. depcn-
ing chiefly upon the length of the tail at
the time it sweeps by US across the eclp-
tic. In any event, within a very few days
after that. the comet and its tail will both
have passed below the horizon"
Spectrum analysis has already been ap-
piled to the comet. and the lines Of carbon
detected. This agrees with spectroscopic
observations Of other comets. From these
it was inferred that comets Cat least their
tails) are composed Of some form of car
bon attenuated in an inconceivablc degree
so much SO that one professor of astron-
omy declared that. in his opinion, the
whole subs.anca,pf the tail of a comet
10000. Coz ~ lengib--could be
compressed into bout ten pounds Of car
bon. such as VIC know it, in the form of
charcoal and coke.
The instructions for finding the comet
are as follows: At about Q or 10 o'clock
the Dipper is seen with the handle in the
direction from the horizon. The two low
est stars in the bowl Of the Dipper (furth-
est from the handle) are called Pointers.
because they point to the Pole star; the
one nearer the Pole star being called
Dubhe. The comet forms nearly an equi-
lateral triangle with the Dubhe and the
Pole star. being situated below them
The tail is above the nucleus and inclined
toward the Pole star.