The Benton weekly record. [volume] (Benton, Mont.) 1880-1885, 1882-10-12
NEW COMETS POSITION
Calculations NSade by the Astro-
nonners in w asllingten.
Prot Eeoss Claiming taas Gass Ekya
posnesis that 1t is tsae Gre:az CeneS
ofz843 IS Verified. and that it Is
&:osag Assay fros1s fsae &uEa.

sE&sss2a "a sASiT kTG8SG bAaS s&RsEA.
/ BosroS, sept. 22.--An approximate
computation of th clements Of the new
fcomet, computed by Mr.. S. c, Chandler.
.Jr.. at Harvard Observatory at about l
o'clock this morning, based upon the OBJ
scrvation Of Prof Swift OF Cincinnati of
the 18th instaIl5 at : p. m, with that taken
at. 80 p. m, on the 10Th instant at Cam
bridge, and that ut 4 a. M, Oh the 20th
instant, also 1t Cambridge: i5.aS follows:
Time Of nerillelion passage, 1882, Aug. 50,
5 long. Of perihaIion, 271 long. Of
node. l73 inclination Of orbit, II Q :;
perihelon distance, 27J000,0 900 miles. At
the time Of the first observation the comet
was about &c, 900, eco miles from the earth,
and at the time CT the three observations,
80, 800 900 miles. This corresponds to q
rate Of speed Of 800 900 miles q day. AS
suming the above to be correct, the coneE
will approach within $4,000, 900 miles Of
the earth, being nearest ii the early part
Of October, but will then be visible only in
tic southern hemisphere. It Will p.oba-
| bly, be visible above tie horizon foi .. few
days here 1T i little before sunrise. Fur
tllar verifying observations will be taken
before sending the resnlt-to Europe.
| s WAsfIiSGToN, Sept. 22.--All day Profs.
Frisby and Skinner have been c!oseted
with their calculations Oil HE orbit of- the
great comet which startled he civilized
world By its s;ld,en appearance near the
sun on Sept. IS. The peculiar situation
Of the comet on the successive days of OBJ
selvation, combined with the correspond
ing relations IN space, have rendered this
task ono ofHInsnal difficulty This diff
Guilty III obtaining accurate results Is much
increased b. reason of the small intervals
Of time between the observations. The
first was taken BY Frisby at 3 p. M, en-
Sept. IS, the second by Winlock at II q.
m., Sept. 20, :iizd the third by Skinner ole>
Sept. 81. Seldom is an attempt made to
compute all orbit with such short Intervals
between successive observations as these,
but the great interest centered in this case
seemed to Warrantthe attempt. The ele-
ments of the otbiT, eas found by Profs.
Frisby and Skinner, are these:
Perihelion passage, Greenwich time, 5
j. a., Sept. II; longitude Of the node. 52G
degrees - min1Jes; ;oje TO perihelioF, 70
degrees 81 minutes; inclination, 81 degrees
4s Minutes; per:Aalion distance, SO0,000
miles; motion, 'retrogra3e.
J'Ile following are tic views OF Prof.
Boss, OF the Dudley Observatory as gain
cd from him III q conversation this even
ing. lie says: ''As ec!rrHtc3 BY these
gentlemen tie accordance Of Tie elements
above given with those Of the great comet
OF 1880 is al taat could have been expect
Ell, even We're Il known 10 q certainty that
the two bottles are one and the same. The
Tcrillelion distance Ct this Genet, 100000
miles, is among the four or five smallest
on record. The element iii the present
computation which IS Theoretically the
most certain is tTle INCLINATION, aud this, ;ts
has been seen, differs less than one degree
from that Of tie 1880 ssconct. Further
more, when the present elenents are pro-
iected backward 10 fi2d the place of the
comet on Sept. Il, it is fountttth the
place Of the Rio Janeilo comet Of that date
is not very well represented. At that date
the present comet must have been z bright
object in the southern hemisphere, and
could not fail 10 be detected Since only
one comet was reported BY Crnls, there is
no escape from the conclusion shat that one
must have been Identical viii! The one noW
seen. 1t follows, from the fact that the
Cruls comet was west OF computed
position. tr;t ri1a perihalnn disG8nee,a ,as
now computed is considerably TOO great.
4 Again, the clements Of p.of. f'rjsbg ans
Skinner are computed Oh liz. only set3
position that car tse made vii ne 5irst
orbit of,i cone<--z13sF o motion IL q l>ar;.=
hoI:l
'Ihe most ti.tI.I,:.so1!a I,nn5 ii Bile case
i the 1:fhettEiE-nI s12ppasi.t& ii1tt tile 1880
eoGhet. is:ls sud .ss:| '.#eGa rftaeasl from
thirfT-sesen years ".s t;;si3 talaa. 04.l
tl.o otheIaIana y a}s,s IL sssis: rittt il s.nos
absolutely necessary . make This snpposi-
tiol, for Il TIC 1913 coaue5 returned any
where between Tile iilisitfie of March and
tile middle Of Nay any year the chances
Of Its being. seen from The earth would be
because it would have APP |
pgoached the siin from the side opposite
the earth AMI, ajlet passing very closely
around, It aba!a also have gone bitckagain.
onstila side opposite tlle ealtil. Titus the
comet mag have returned onee or twice, OF
esen more times ii Tile interval between
1913 and 1880 without. flaSing been seen
from the. EARTH Consequently there may
have been Il ggfadualdiminution Of periodic |
time. Il, however, there has beel1 sud-
den reduction OF the periodic time from
thirty-seyento to a little more than two years
and a half, Tt.folIoWs almost certainly that
the next reduction may be proportionally /
great. \ e may even have the comet crash /
ing into the sun next year. What the re-
suit Of that crash may be is 4 problem yet
to be.solyea.
It must now be conceded that q comet |
has 4 solid nucleus. The nucleus Of the
Wells comet vas distinctly seen iilan OBJ
servation At the Dudley Observatory on
June Il til last, and was. estimated to be not
less than 400 miles ii diameter. The nu-