Morning journal and courier., 1882-10-05
The Beautiful New Comet.
Description of Its Appearance by Il
 Eminent Astronomer.

Description of Its Appearance by nm
 Eminent Astronomer.
 Professor Hastings, of Johns Hopkins Un- iversity, contributes the following to the Baltimore American.
 Editor American Sir-Early risers saw this morning the most magnificent celestial spectacle which has been presented to us for a quarter of century, for not since the great comet of Donati, in 1858, has so splendid an object appeared Rising nearly due east at about 4:2O this morning, the most favorable time for observation was during the quarter of an hour preceding q. m, as at that time it's apparent br1lliancy commenced to grow less from approaching dawn, that quar- ter of an hour later the tail was nearly lost to sight. The head was marked by a very brilliant nucleus, considerably elongated and with it's major axis inclined 1O0 or 150 to the general direction of the tail. The tail, stretching toward the southwest for dis tance of 150, according to comparison with known intervals between stars, marked by very intense and well defined lower edge curving upwards from the horizon and ter. minating with more sharpness than would have been anticipated the upper border was far less distinct. Notable features were two rifts-one. very pronounced, extended from the nucleus to the extreme end, while the other, which required much closer inspec- l tion, was about half the length of the comet | remote from the head. and nearly parallel to the first. It was noted that these rifts were i not divergent, as though having a common origin in the nucleus, but that the fainter l one carried with it suggestion of having l previously been in line with the nucleus, but l left behind by the more solid part of the comet in it's motion. Indeed, from what we know of the manner in which the tail of 8 l comet is produced, this suggestion is very l likely the true explanation of It's formation l for observation has shown that the tail is produced by matter which, apparently under I n n l. l the nucleus which is turned towards the sun, l and is then strongly repeled. From this it 1 is easy to see why the tail is directed from 1 the sun :; why the tail may be more or less curved, since there is no reason why the ten l uous matter driven from the heat should | keep up with it in it's orbitsl motion, and l why, finally, there should be fainter central | line or rift behind the nucleus, since the ma | terial for the tail is evolved on the sunward | side of the head only, and must pass around | it before it can be driven off into space In | many large comets it has been observed that 1 this material for the tail rises in envelopes from the nucleus, not constantly, but period. | ically; and as this is in all probability uni i versal characteristic, we must regard the tail l as renewed periodically. Hence we are led to believe that the fainter rift observed was really tho remnants of tail which was pro
 duced at earlier time, though perhaps | earlier only by a few hours. Doubtless the
 oval form of the nucleus was due to an en
 velope, which, first thrown upwards towards
 the sun, had already begun to yield to the | repulsive force, and may go to swell the
 splendor of the comet for tomorrow. This | explanation of the formation of comets l tail, due to Obbers is the only one which k | in the least satisfactory. Its only difficulty 1 is it's failure to account for the reversal o
 the ordinary action of the sun, which il
 every other known case is attractive.
 But the comet is not alone interesting or
 account of it's splendor, or as a representative
 of class of bodies which has excited ths
 profoundest emotions in mankind from tim,
 immemorial; men of science all over tht
 world observing it with the deepes
 interest. That it, with one other alone. has
 exhibited in the spectroscope lines character
 istic of iridium vapor, instead of just such g
 series of bands as we may observe in tn,
 spectrum of the blue band of lamp o
 gas flame, and which we had come tt
 regard as characteristic of comets, il
 doubtless significant, but we may readil,
 overrate it's importance. What is of prim,
 importance, however, is it's near approacl
 to the sun and it's relation to certain othe
 comets. According to clements of the or
 bit, calculated at Washington and published
 on the 24th, the nearest approach to the SUI was on the 17th, at which time it's distanc
 from the suns center was only 500, GOO miles
 somewhat less than the diameter of the sun
 computations at Cambridge, founded ol
 later observations and published on the 26th reduce this distance to 307 ,OOO miles, dis tance evidently too small because less thal the radius of the sun.
 As soon as three observations of 6 come , have been obtained astronomers are able t } compute an approximate orbit, the approx nation depending upon the accuracy of tn I observations. This done they not only ca
 predict the position of the comet for som time in advance, but they are then first in } position to tell whether 1t resembles an