The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1881-07-07
The Comet.

Everybody watches the comet these
evenings, and it may be interesting
to know something about comets. The
one now seen was discovered by PROBES.
sors Larkin, OF Illinois, and Edwards, OF
Pennsylvania, and it promises to be the
leading sensation in astronomical circles
this year, owing to its great size and
brilliancy. 1t promises TO increase in
splendor, and will be visible before and
after midnight In the northwest toward
which region it is now swiftly travelling.
The superstitious awe that has. in bar.
barous ages, attended the approach OF
these fiery wanderers is not yet extinct,
and tends to heighten the interest with
which theirterrible appearance is viewed.
In olden times the pagan worshippers
supposed them to be demons, coming to
visit the world with plague and famine,
or gods bringing divers chances to the en-
terprises of kings. The great comet
which suddenly doomed into view soon
after the murder OF Julius Cesar was be-
lieved to be a heavenly chariot sent to
carry his spirit to the home of the immOr-
tails. And in Christian times prayers
were publicly offered against the evil in
fiuences of the comet. What tended to
increase the popular terror was the
alarming growth of the celestial visitors
In size and brilliancy from night to
night, sometimes for several weeks, un-
til their tails had extended well nigh
across the sky. 1t is said there are
millions of comets roaming about
among the consultations, but not
one in hundred comes near
enough to be visible to the naked eye,
and even the largest of them remain WISH
BILE only while they are comparatively
near the earth, and myriads of them ap-
proach the earth in the MONDAY sky, b e.
ing then, of course, invisible. One such
comet of singular brightness beamed
forth during a total eclipse of the sun
but was never visible before or after
ward. Upwards of five hundred have
been observedw1th the naked eye since the
commencement of the Christian era, two
hundred more have been seen since the in
vention of the telescope, and many more
have doubtless visited our solar system
and wandered away unobserved. Com
cts travel with amazing velocity, and are
seen advancing toward the earth from
distances that are counted only by
billions of miles. The nucleus of a comet
is not more than thousand miles broad
but the coma Is often many thousand
miles In width. The tail sometimes at
tains breadth fully as great rs may
length. The fan.shaped appearance OF
the tail frequently breaks up into several,
forming an object of great beauty on a
clear dark night. The direction of the
tail has been a puzzle to astronomers;
As the comet advances sunward, the tai
is flung into sheaves of faint nebulosity
When it stands nearest to the sun the
sheaves are, as it were, blown ont from
him as if by some electric, repulsive
force and this force continues to operate
during the retreat, until the tail, released
from the influences of the solar power,
is gradually diminished and absorbed into
the coma once more. A remarkable cir
cumstance is the transparency of every
part of the comet. Herschel saw
a star OF the twentieth magni-
tude through the nucleus of one.
The present comet is distant from the
earth about forty million miles, and from
the sun about sixty million miles, and is
receding from both, and its northern mo-
ton will rapidly diminish, so that it will
require at least two:months to reach the
neighborhood of the north star. 1t will
probably be visible for some time.