The morning call., 1892-11-29
NOT BIELA'S COMET.
Lick Observatory Says 1t Is the
Holmes.
1t Has Fan Tail and Will Not Come
Near the Earth by rliliions
OF TILES.
Special to THE MORNING CALL.

LICK OBSERVATORY via San Josef,
Nov. 2S.-The interesting Holmes comet has
been Systematically observed here since Ne
vember 8, but the stormy weather has pre-
vented observations on every night of the
past week, except one.
Its position in the SKY has been accurately
measured by Professor Schaeberle with the
meridian circle and by Professor Barnard
with the 12-inch telescope. The latter has
also secured successful photographs of the
comet with the Brocker telescope.
Mr.. Campbell has observed its spectrum
usually and photographically with the
great equatorial.
Our observations show that in many re-
spects it is the most remarkable comet OF
recent years. On November its diameter
was about minutes, or one-sixth of the
moons diameter. SO sharply defined,
rounded and dense that it resembled the
interesting objects we call planetary neb-
ulR rather than comet.
The ordinary comet must be examined
under low magnifyDg power. but the dense
body of the Holmes easily bore a magnifi-
cation Of 700 diameters in the spectroseope
finder, and the structure thus seen seems to
differ considerably from that observed else
where with smaller telescopes. Near
coma was the usual nucleus slightly
elongated Diverging from this nucleus in
a direction opposite the sun was quite
dense fan-like structure which could be
traced up TO the edge of the coma and was
visible even beyond the edge when the
bright coma was just outside the telescope.
This structure was the tail OF the comet in
embryo, which has since increased consid-
erably in length
The spectrum Of the nucleus OF an or
binary comet is continuous, showing that it,
like the planets, is shining by virtue of re-
fected sunlight, while the spectrum OF the
coma and tail consists almost wholly Of
three or four bright bands, which are sem
sioly Identical with those given by the blue
part of the ordinary gas or candle light.
This part of the light is pro badly inherent
in the comet. The spectrum of the Holmes
comet is unique. All parts of il give a con-
tinuous spectrum, but underlying this there
is certainly trace of the green band, in
which respect our observations differ from
those reported from other observatories The
apparent size Of the comet has continually
increased until now it is about two-thirds
the diameter Of the moon. 1t is quite diff
fuse and elongated and has the appearance
OF an ordinary comet Though it has
grown larger. it has also grown fainter and
is barely visible to the unassisted eye. The
computers agree that it is not the Biela
comet, and that II is neither close TO nor
approaching the earth. In fact. though it
is moving in an ellipse around the sun, its
orbit seems TO lie entirely outside the orbit
of Mars, aud it can therefore never ap-
proach us even as closely as Mars does.
The meteor shower of November IS could
net be seen here on account of the clouds,
but Professor Kirkweod of Riverside, who
is an authority on the subject, writes that
the meteors had the usual radiant point OF
the November showers and they are un-
doubtedly connected with those expected on
November 81. Considerable addition to
our knowledge of the structure of this
meteor stream may result from the observa-
tionS of this shower.