The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-10-11
CAPTURED A COMET
Perrine's Discovery Has an Extra
Tail and Travels a Million
=. Miles a Day.
Observations Of Prof. Payne at Good
. sell-Comet Was Its Bright
est Yesterday.

Special to The Journal.
Northfield, Mimi, Oct. 1.-THE new
comet, of which the daily papers have
been taking notice lately, was discovered
by G. D. Perrine, of the Lick observatory,
Mt. Hamilton, Cal, on the morning of
Sept. 1. 1t was then too faint to be seen
by the naked eye. In the telescope, Mr..
Perrine said Of it, when first seen. that
it's appearance was like faint nebula,
with a small, we'll defined spot called
nucleus near the center, a little brighter
than the rest of the comet. ! This small,
globular patch of light on the dark face Of
the sky, which Mr.. Perrine called comet
when he first saw 1t, was not then, appar-
emily, more than one-sixth of the diameter
of the full moon. But he was sure it was
a comet not only from the way it looked
to an eye that has experience in observing
comets, but, also, more certainly from
the fact that a faint tail was seen ex-
tending outward, from the Head of the
comet to, the southwest equal to the dia-
meter Of it's head or aboutHones of a
degree. %;
After taking three observations Of the
new comet to learn which way it was
moving across the sky, and, also, to learn
how rapidly it was going, the information
of the discovery was telegraphed in cipher
to Harvard college observatory, the central
telegraph station for all astronomical dis
coveries in the United States, and by that
observatory the discovery was telegraphed
to all other observatories in the United
States and to the observatory at kiel, in
| Germany.
Those who read about the new comet
| naturally want to know how far it is
away how near it will come to the earth,
how bright it will be, how long it will be
visible and many other such things about
it that will occur to any interested lntelll-
gent mind. : : -. -
Professor w. w. Payne Of Goodsell OBJ
servatory of this place says: Astronomers
speak -of~.the light of, "a comet or Its
| brightness by means Of numbers. The
brightness Of any comet at the time OF
discovery is usually called unity or 1. If
on another day it is twice as bright as
when first seen, it's light IS then called 2,
| if two and one-half times as bright, then
25 denotes it's light In the case of
this new comet, it's light at discovery was
called 1; on Sept. 10 it was 2.1O; Sept IS,
452; Oct. 5, 27.1; Oct. 10 it was 80. ap-
proximately, when 1T was the brightest
and nearest to the earth.
i when discovered the new comet was
more than 100, 100000 miles distant from
the earth. Ten days later it was nearer
J, to the earth than the sun is; probably not
more than 90,O00,000 miles away from
us. a rate Of travel of about million of
miles a day, although not moving directly
towards the earth during the time. Yes
? terday 1t was still 80, OOO,OOO miles dis
tant so nobody need fear a comet cO]li-
sion with the earth. His, visit w1llebe a
i harmless one.&+ He will make his grace
/ full bow, at a distance Of more than 3d.;
, 900, 900 Of miles, and then pass away into
! the limitless star depths possibly never
to return again.
!, 1.-The comet has been photographed sew
eral times at Goodsell observatory. The
sensitive plate shows more than is visible
! in the largest telescope Of the observatory
The most interesting thing shown by the
t photographs is the fact tina the comet ha:
! two tails, both pointing away from the sun
1.-THE head of the comet seems to- b.
+ uuiescent, maintaining about the same
q appearance for several days past. but i
, is evident that there must be much activ
ity in it's nucleus in order to throw GU
+ two tails. That means powerful anG
repulsive force from the sun at work ii
the head of the comet" ,.t,}-s =.