The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1881-07-14
Prof. Draper Talking About the
Comet

x Prof. Draper Talking About tn
Comet.
y 1t is doubtful whether the head a
; this comet Ia, presented precisely tn
:, same appearance for TWO consecutiv
. hours since j, tirst blazed out in on
sky. To the upassisted eve II rescm
bles always bright star, without
however, showing any of the fickeIin:
that distinguishes the stats from tn,
planets. But IN the telescope the oni,
thing about II that does not appear 4
change much is the bright dot, ol
nucleus, IN the centre Ali ihe lumin
Gus material surrounding this dot j. IN
motion. One night it seems banked
up in front III two or three rows ol
furrows, like surg'ng waves The
next night IL appears like plume shot
out IN front and blown aside bv the
Wind. Again If forms almost = circle
abont the nucleus, with which il seems
connected 10y spokes Of light. lestcr.
day morning the thickest part OF the
coma seemed TO have been pushed
around TO one side Of the nucleus,
which IT almost embraced IN its circlet,
leaving, however, distinct gap in one
direction. From the nucleus, which
on Nedncsday morning Was as round
as the disk of planet. shot out one or
two short bright beams, like tongues
oi flame piercing the nebulous envelope
behind. All the features of the head
are becoming more distinctly visible as
the comet rises higher in the sky, and
so escapes more and more from the
smoke of the city.
The comet is now in the constella-
tion Camelus, F" said Prof. Henry Ora
per in Dobb's Ferry Yesterday. "and
Is rushing along at the pace of half a
million miles a day Rapid changes
are going on both in the coma and In
the nucleus. When | first saw the
comet week ago the coma curved out
and on each side Of the nucleus in the I
attitude OF flying bird But last I
night the wings had Topped forward, I
or rather back ward, toward the sun.
Another remarkable phenomenon was
that large part of the coma has settled |
upon the nucleus. This is accounted |
for easily. You would naturally and |
truthfully presume that as the comet
retreats from the sun it would lose its
heat originally given to it the sun
The coma is undonttatdiy: ua4s re.1s;i raa1ssss
should expect that the coma @oul be
come less in volume and fainter in ap
pearance Such is the fact.
Another curious fact. As | looked |
at the nucleus it flashed out to an im /
mcnse distance on the side toward the /
san. Then | remembered tnat tie .
great Donati comet in 1858 did the
same thing, and that comet also gave
a thrill or shake all along its tail at the
instant when the nucleus burst out to-
ward the sun. | looked anxiously for
a similar thrill in this comets tail, but
saw none. The nucleus is a sphere no
longer, but is more oblong."
Have you obtained another photo
graph T.
"Yes; last night tried to seize the
comets tail | knew that the comet
is getting among millions of stars, and
| wanted to see whether the tail would
prove an obstruction to the rays of
starlight coming through 1t to the
earth. ! wanted to quiet Mark Twain
fears and relieve him from his generous
task Of standing on his
house too with pole to fend off the
comets tail if it should whsk around
this way. He can climb down now,
for the stars showed very vividly I,
through the tail. BY the way, curi
Gus thing happened in taking tue plate.
| exposed the plate to the tail Of the
comet for three houes The plate was
so sensitive that dlffused starlight
stained il. Well, when was through
the experiment and had developed the
negative started and thought that it
had been ruined. Itlooked as though h
a shaggy substance had been passed
over 1t, leaving innumereble straight
lines all in the same direction Then
| laughed aloud at my blunder, The
double motion Of the telescope an|
plate, one motion to counteract the
earth's motion; and anotheI thaf # = : :
'romct, had left the stars motion to
shift for themselves. And they bad /
pursued their own motion across the
plate, leaving little photographs of
themselves at every instant, and thus
each one formed a continuous line
The photograph is vivid, and is as good
as can be taken 1t is s. in length. /
The eastern or convex side is brighter
thar the concave side, which has be !
come more filmy and delicate.
"What, then, in your opinion, is the
comet made off,
THE nucleus is either solid or liquid,
probably solid and mineral heated by
contact with the sun to just the de
gree Of heat that if you heated it more
it would liquefv | do not believe
that the nucleus is any hotter than
you could heat a mineral on earth /
Together with this mineral is probably
some volatile fluid like naphtha. Our
sun falls in with this huge bal wander
ing in space and attracts 1t. The
comet rushes toward it and the aaphtha
heats up on the side toward the sun
and sets the whcle affair on fire. The
tail that IT throws off | take to be par
ticles tbrowa off from the nucleus like
a rain. The rain drops are probably
little meteors, and it is possible that
they may sometimes get away from the
comets influence, leave following after
it, aud set up for themselves as travel
lers in space 1t is pretty certain that
space is peoplcd be meteors. As to
the coma, that may be the volatile
liquid and Incandescent mineral on the
side toward the sun
The Beauty and Color of the hair