The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-27
KEEN
was the Vision of This Astronomers
Who Discovered "a Comet With
His Naked Eye,

His Naked Eye.
Prof. Lewis Swift, Of Lowe observa-
tory, Echo mountain, California. can
boast of a feat. which, perhaps. no
other astronomer in the world ever
performed at all-he has discovered O
comet by means Of his unaided WIS.,
ion.
1t is difficult for a person not versed
IN astronomical lore to really appreci-
ate the marvellous achievement of see
ing a comet with the naked ewes. In
the first place, his runaway heavenly
body IS, as rule, discovered before
1t possibly can reach a point near
enough to the earth to be deserted by
human vision. There are every day.
year In and year out, numberless tele-
scopes with keen eyes at their lower.
ends and all looking heavenward. Thus
IL may be seen how very difficult if
Is for a comet to come within telescop-
&c VISION without being seen by some
one.
In a letter to the writer Prof. Swift
has the following to say concerning
MS unique discovery and the method
thereof:
THE comet that I have lust seen
without the aid of telescope has not.
SO Tar as l have been able to learn,
been seen by any one else. The WHY
happened to see it was this When
one-thlrd Of the sun had set below
the mountain I noticed through the
WINDOW OF the observatory a peculiar
luminous object about one degree
above the suns upper limb. 1t was at
once apparent that the object could
neither be star nor the planet Venus
The conclusion that it was a comet
was soon reached by me- Selling an
opera glass [ closely inspected the III
mlnous object and found that If steadi-
y increased, both in size and brightness.
you must understand, to fully appre-
Claue my surprise, that it is a yerv nm
usual thing indeed for an ASTRONOMER
TO see comet by daylight. very near
the sun, and to witness all this with
out the aid Of a pair of spectacles. The
glass revealed still another surprise
however, for by its aid 1 discovered
mat there We're two comets, one of
which was that which had become Wis
lble TO me without the aid Of a glass
and the second one, when the teIescope
was turned full upon it. seemed of IN
usual size and brightness.
Within about five minutes 7 saw
both the sun and the comets SLOWLY
SINK from view behind a spur of the
Sierra Madre mountains. The eIassac
that l used in surveying the second
comet were of the ordinary sort I-01,
see at the theater.
The next day I was at the observa-
tory engaged in studying the heavens
Win my 1Our-and-a-half cOmet-seeIzef.
swept around the sun to get, if posi-
PIE, another view Of the two comets I
had seen the previous day. When the
suns disk had half disappeared below
the mountain peak, L detected what ]
supposed was one Of the comets. Its
1alntness surprised me, however. for il
appeared to me no brighter then
When aided by the comet-seeker
IMAM when L first looked at it with the
naked eye. '--0
Now that the moon is away from
the morning sky, I sincerely trust that
either l or some other laborer in fhe
astronomical field will again see these
two strange comets. 1 confess that 7
nave Peen unable to get as much detail
regarding the two visitors as sbo,,Id
have liked, for the fact that thew were
visible only in the daytime rendered
detailed observations a very difficult
task, and greatly limited the results