Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1881-06-29
The Celestial Visitor.

mine who first saw the mysterious
celestial wanderer that made its ap-
pearance in the northeastern sky on
Thursday morning, Belated ped.
estrians on their way home and all
night workers were just as likely to
catch the first glimpse Of the un-
announced visitor as the astrono-
mers who were sweeping the
heavens with their telescopes, and
it is not probable that any scientific
observer will ever be able to show
that he noted the arrival OF the
comet before it was seen by people
who happened to be outdoors in the
early morning hours OF June 23'
One fact, however, cannot be dis"
puted; The SUH was the only
newspaper in the world that an
nounced the arrival Of the omet on
Thursday morning, and DR.. Chas.
G. Hill, of Arlington, Md. was the
first observer who made prompt
use of the opportunity to COM
municate the intelligence to the
press. Mr.. Levi Edwards, a young
gentleman who had graduated at
Haverford College, near Philadel-
phia, on the preceding day states
that he saw the comet at 2 o'clock
A, NJ. He had constructed a tele-
scope, and got up at this hour in
the morning to test its capacity
There was no need, however, for
Bringing his glass to bear on an OBJ
ject which he could plainly see
with the naked eye. Mr.. Edwards
went over to the railway station at
Bryn Mawr, and telegraphed the
discovery to Prof, Swift, at Roches
ter University. Prof. Henry, Of
Paris. and no doubt many other
astronomers in Europe, saw the
comet about the same time, Prof.
Sharpless, Of Haverford College, is
Of the opinion that the comet is
identical with the one which DR..
Gould saw on June l from the OBJ
servatory at Buenos Ayers. and
telegraphed the discovery to Eng
land. DR. Gould believed it to be
the same great comet Of 1907 which
excited much interest among scien-
fists and not a little alarm among
the superstitiOns. The diameter Of
its nucleus as measured by Bcssel,
the German astronomer, was found
to be 538 miles. 1t was then taken
to DO periodic and calculated by
him to return in 1913 years.
The orbits Of the comets are
changed, however, by the attrac-
tons Of the planets, and this may
be tue same one. Prof. Sharpless
further said that as the comet ap-
proaches the sun its tail will become
greatly elongated, apparently by
some repcllant force. The head OF
the comet becomes more brilliant as
the velocity increases. IT the comet
is travelling away from the sun the
tail. nucleus and all may suddenly
disappear.
This is the first bright comet
Size the spectroseope has been per-
fected. and this instrument, if op
portunities are given, will throw
new light on the composition of COM
cts in general. They are supposed
to be eombosed of glowing carbon
gas and various meteoric bodies,
comets and meteors being known in
some cases to have the same orbit.
Coggia's comet in 1874 was first
seen at Marseilles, France, on April
II, and it came near enough to the
world to scare a good many people,
within 100000 miles, but it finally
disappeared in a very beautiful
shower OF meteors and has not been
seen since. Comets vary in size
from 80 miles diameter at the nuc.
leus to 5000 miles. Their passage
through the air produces intense
heat, and the world would undoubt-
eddy be scorcked if the comet came
within close proximity. In 1861
We passed through the tail Of com.
err, but the only evidence Of the lumi-
nary was an atmospheric mist.
That event occurred twenty years
ago next Thursday.
Prof Ormond Stone, Of the Gin
cinnati Observatory, says the COM
ct is moving rapidly north. He is
quite positive that it is not the com