Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-03-12
Comets and MeteOrs.

Professor Proctor delivered a lecture
in Hershey Music Hall yesterday after
noon upon " Comets and MeteOrs"-a
subject which, he remarked in open
ing,was one of very great difficulty, not
less to the astrOnOmic students of to-
day than to those of ancient times. 1t
was true that science had discovered
many interesting facts regarding these
bodies, but this had increased the diff
ficulties connected with their study as
it had added to the mysteries which
surround them.
The lecturer, whose remarks were il
lustrated by number of large paint
ings, opened his illusions to cometary
peculiarities by describing the success
full efforts made by Herschel to define
the course of the comet of 1850 as that
which Newton had laid down for it.
Newton predicted that this comet on
its reappearance would pass very near
the sun, and the result showed him TO
be very correct, the body passing within
one hundred and sixty thousand miles
of the sun, the repulsive power of the
latter overcoming its power of gravity.
The comet of the year 1852 provided
Newton's pupil, HALEY, with an oppor-
tunity to deal more thoroughly with
the question Of gravity as affecting the
movements of comets, and, after con-
sidering it thoroughly, he predicted
that the comet would reappear in the
year 1859, date long after his death.
In the meantime other astronomical
mathematicians had TO deal with the
subject, and they, realizing that the
force Of the disturbing influences of the
planets Jupiter and Saturn would de-
lay the comets reappearance, placed
the date of its return in 1885. Three
separate calculations were made, and
the comet reappeared within the time
covered by them. The question of
what formed the tail of the comet
was treated at considerable length
by the lecturer who indorsed
Herschels theory that it con-
sisted Of clouds of vaporous
matter which the power of the sun
drove from the head of the comet.
Other theories had been formed, and
one by Professor Tyndall, which the
lecturer explained fully with familiar
Illustration, that the tail was a negative
shadow of the head of the comet, had
attracted great deal of attention,
though 1t had not been received by as
tronOmers as correct. Considerable
interest attached to the recent disoov-
cry that there is a connection between
comets and meteOrs-bodies so small
that the astronomer Kepler was indig-
nant at the suggestion that they were
fit subjects for astronomical scrutiny.
The textbook from which the lecturer
studied when u boy disposed of the
question of meteors in short order, but,
while the information it conveyed was
given in a confident manner, the only
comment to be made regarding it was
that it was all wrong. The periodioity
of the showers of meteOrs was referred
to, the great displays recurring at an
interval of from thirty-three to thirty
four years, thus showing that the me-
teors take about one-third of a century
to 90 round the sun. Astronomers de-
clined TO believe this at first. because
this period implied that the meteors
had an orbit which carried them twenty
times more distant from the sun than
is the earth, but the discovery that the
showers of meteors are coincident with
the tracks Of the comets showed them
to be the repelled particles of those
bodies whose orbits they followed.
The lecturer stated a number of further
interesting facts and discoveries con-
neoted with what Humboldt described
as "pooket planets,p and in his con-
clusion again stated that, while a large
quantity ofwork had been accomplished
in this peculiar branch of astronomical
research, the field of study was, and
would probably remain, practically in
1 exhanstible, Chicago Tribune.