The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-08-16
About Comets.

escOpe. The greater ones are composed Of
three parts: the nucleus, the coma, and the
tail. From coma, the Latin for hair, comes |
the name comet. 1t is the mass of bright |
clouds surrounding the nucleus or eye tf the |
comet. The tail is an apparent elongation |
of the coma. The nucleus of Newton's COM
ct of 1850 had the form of star, with dark
blue central eye. That of 1885 (Halley's),
which is believed to traverse its full circle and
return every 76. years, had a central eye,
with bright crescent on either side of it,
the whole nucleus presenting something like
serpent's head. The tails of some comets
appear straight, of others curved; some seem
to have several tails, and some are without
apparent tails. |" their approach toward the
sun the tail is, as all proper tails should be
behind; but on rounding the sun they are al
ways reversed, the tail being in front.
1t was the opinion Of the ninent astrono-
mer Kepler that the celestial space is as full
of comets rs the sea is o. fish, and that an IN
tinitesimally small part of them ever come in
range of the telescope. Yet it is a fact that
that over 500 comets have been seen from
this earth with the naked eye since the be-
ginning of the Christian era and about POO
others by telescope. 1t is a theory among
astronomers that the planet Jupiter exercises
power of repulsion over comets II at get
within the orbits eff his satellites fatal to their
temperance. Lexell's comet, last seen in
| ITO, was one of these erratics. Com
| ing too close to Jupiter, it was seized by his
| repeling power, turned out of the solar sys-
TEN into illmitable space, and has never been
seen since, though its former appearance had
been every five and half years. OF course
there will be many and different conjecturcs
as to the identity of the celestial stranger
now paying us visit. 1t is not Biela's for
that has been lost. 1t is not Newton's for
that returns only once in 515 years to the
sight of the earth. 1t is not Halley's, for
that appears but once in rs years. paid its last
respects to us in November, 1885, and is not
again due until 1917. 1t is not Donati's, the
great comet of 1858, visible here for two
months, for that has an orbit which it re-
quiIes 1850 years TO complete, and will not be
seen again till the year 3SOS or thereabouts.
In 1o43, in the month of February, great
comet, an entire stranger to the astronomers,
like the one now visible, suddenly burst into
view near the sun. 1t was plainly Visible In
broad day light. 1t was seen for two months,
and Prof Newcolub, of the United States
Naval Observatory, mentions of it that "it
passed nearer tie sun than any other known
body--sO near 1t, in fact, that with a very
slight change in the direction of its original
motion it wOnld have struck the SUM- Its
orbit has been calculated at $50 years. So
that cannot bp our stranger now in sight.
Nor can it he Enckes, for this is much larger
than Encke's In short, it would seem to
be comet whereof there is no record Prob
ably one of the innumerables mentioned
by Kepler as keeping their lines Of march in
outer space, but turned aside from It's old
orbit by some such comet -repeller as Jupiter.
Whatever it is, astronomy has reached
point so reliable in its calculations OF the mo-
tons Of all celestial bodies, comets included,
that we may be sure its orbit will De calcula-
ted and the time of its return predicted with
in year or two at farthest. On the average
! VIC SuUulN uc NISitSu W oiS VI ohSoS SSiSoViai
erratics every - years, or every 1870 days.
That is, to "a comet visible without the aid of
a telescope. Of this quality Of comets SOP
have been recorded either in history or as
tronomy, or both, from The year | to the year
1872 of the Christirn era. The century which
produc the most comets was the thrd--2Ol
to 3OO-after Christ, when "A were seen-a
comet every $50 days. This was the centu-
~ in which Constantine organized the Chris
tian Church and made it the religion of the
Roman Empire. The average for the first
1900 wears after Christ was p comets a CEN
tury. Up to 1875 this century has seen but
lG comets not of the telescope order. We
are therefore entitled to II more before the
year 1901, to equal the average. In the cen-
tury ending with 800 there were but 16 re-
corded, but as that was "dark" century
some NAV have been missed in the record;
but in the lG h century, when Newtun lived,
is record of only II, and i'll the 9th century,
when the Emperor Justinian regned at Con
stantinople-the era of the great plague in
Europe, which lasted 81 years and, as Proco-
Plus tells us. killed 1O00O0,OOO people-there
were but Ii comets seen, but they were great
ones, and cause of much alarm to mankind
because at. that time the world was as ignor-
ant of astronomy and the laws which govern
the motions of celestial bodies as the natives
of Central Africa now are.-Sdh FranciscO
ChrOnicie.
Aman's enjoyment must be based upon
and proportioned To his education and tenn
permanent. Why should We waste our holi-
days as well as our working months in truck
ling to the tastes and the dictum of a world
that cares nothing for us? 1t is not neces-
sary or right that all men should enjoy art,
nature or music to make them useful or hon
omhlc. When we 90 a pleasuring at least,