Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-01

Hoc 1t Eriaeutly TooA Fire From the Smm
and as Evidently is Not E,sc!fes Comet Of
1912
The Rio Nelcs of Oct. "a publishes in
full a letter of Professor Gould. OF the OBJ
servatory at Cordoba, in the Argentine
confederacy, On the comet of 1882. Pro-
lessor Gould, after distinguishing himself
at Harvard, married daughter of the late
Josiah Quincy, Jr., of Boston, and accept
ed the position which he filed for quar-
ter of a century Fast at the head of the
astronomical service of the Argentine gov
eminent. Of the comet which he has just
Observed, with all his usual care and scien-
tifc accuracy he thus writes to the Argen-
tine minister of justice and public in
struction, DR.. Wilde:
NATIONAL ARGENTINE OBSERVATORY.
CORDOBA, September 30, 1882.
The relative positions of the earth, the
sun and the comet have been such that or
binary methods are of no avail for the de-
termination of its orbit, so that this has
necessitated an amount of labor three or
four times as great as it otherwise would
have been. giving at the same time results
which are far from being exact. The sun
and the comet were both almost on the
plane of the equator where the same has
its intersection with the ecliptic; part of
the series of observations were effected
previous to the perihelion, and the rest
subsequently, to the same; in the beginning
it could not be known whether the comet,
which on the 18th was twice in the same
direct line with the earth and sun, had
passed in the first instance before or be-
hind the same, or not, the ascendant is
quite close up TO the equinoctial line; final
~ it has. continued its apparent course
! with the same route on approac hing and
! withdrawing from the sun
The course of the comet has been the
object of observations ON all the favorable
days since the 9th inst, both during the
| day and before daybreak. The develop
1nent OF the matter going to form the tail
has been observed; careful drawings OF
| the position and magnitude of the same
| have been taken, and the orbit has been
repeatedly estimated, more exact knowi-
edge of the position and form of the same
| being from time to time obtained. The
ASTRONOMER. MIR. Francis WiSgIn, assistan;
: at the observatory, after repeated trials
! has succeeded III arriving ut estimates
which cannot be very far from the truth
Now that its orbit is known, the simili.
tude supposed to exist between this comet
and that of 1908 has disappeared, and it
may be said that it cannot be Unidentified
with any that have been previously OBJ.
served. What is specially notable about
| it is its limited perihelion distaace, which
though not so small as that of the comet
of l843 and 1880, nor even that of 1880, ii
nevertheless notable. 1t is evident thai
the great brilliancy of the comet subse
quent to its access to the sun is due to it:
incandescence through the great heat it ha.
borne.
Generally speaking, comets only shin.
through the reflected light of the sun. bu
to this enc there appears to have been ad
ded another intrinsic brilliancy, It's very
body having attained white color.
The tail, which has measured during tn,
week a length of from fifteen to twenty
degrees and a width of about one degree
was prolonged at one edge to distance O
from twelve to fifteen de. rees more, ant
by a streak of bright light giving 1t tn
appearance of having lost pine-tenths O
its tail, leaving what remained thereo
twice as wide as it otherwise would hav
seemed.
On Sunday, the 18th inst. it approa che,
the sun with an extreme apparent velocity