The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1908-11-05
NOTED COMET
Is CO5NzNG

The astronomers of the world ara
searching the sky for a first glimpse
of Halley's comet, which disappeared
into space seventy-five years ago, and
is again rushing toward the sun al
| the rate of $40 miles a minute The
| astronomers expect to see it through
their telescopes some time this fall
| probably next month
!, AS it comes nearer and nearer to
the sun, its speed will increase. AS
it passes Jupiter its speed will be
783 miles minute. This will rap
idly increase TO 1884 miles a minute,
and as it rushes past the earth its
| speed will be 154S miles a minute.
2, 1910, it will be shooting through
space at the rate of 1878 miles a
minute, which will be the greatest
speed it will attain. This comet will
not be nearer than 100000 miles
of our earth, but it will be plainly
seen by the naked eye - not this
year-only telescopes of the greatest
power will be able to see it this year,
and then it will be only tiny speek
in the sky. Next fall, in October and
November, 1909, it will be seen by
the naked eye, and it will continue to
grow brighter and larger from that
time until it has passed around the
sun and shot off into space again.
Astronomers cannot tell yet the
exact spot where the comet will ap-
pear in the sky or the exact day it
will come. The German Astronomi-
cal Society has offered a price of 100
marks for the most exact calculation
of its appearance, and all the astron
omers of the world are working for
it. The tail of Halley's comet was
SO long when it appeared in 1853
that it reached a distance equal to
that from the earth to the sun, and
several millions of miles beyond. To
the naked eye this tail reached in the
sky half way from the zenith to the
horizon. 1t was described as a great
blare of white light, fan-shaped and
Nul fCO w WACh IL ACAt lCLul hC0s -
years later, in 1885, it was somewhat
shorn of its splendor-its tail was
only a little more than half as long
as it was rs years before, but it was
a splendid sight.
How the comet will look upon this
visit it is impossible to tell now, be-
cause comets often change their |
shape while they are flying through |
space many billions of miles beyond |
sight of the earth. Sometimes a |
will blaze out with three tails, |
as in the case of the comet observed |
by Donati in 1858, and at its next |
return will appear without any tail /
at all, or surprise US still more, as
in the case of Blela's comet, which |
split in two and eventually went to
pieces and was lost in the void.
While the astronomers cannot pre-
dict with accuracy what the shape
Of Ha1ley's comet will be when it
appears this time, they are yet ex-
pecting 1t to be a most wonderful
sight. E. Ledger, a great astrono-
mer, writing about the coming of
comet. says:
cit is a comet of notable beauty
and grandeur of head and tail, and
It is expected that when it appears
this time 1t will be Of surprising
grandeur to the naked eye-"
1t may even be as great as it was
IN 1864, when the old astronomers
described it as Terrible to behold,
with a tail sixty degrees IN length
This was considerably more than half
way from the horizon to the zenith.
In that year the sight Of this mon
strous light In the sky, like a curved
ready to strike, SO terrified
humanity that Pope Calixtus ordered
the Christian universe to order up
special prayers for protection from
the Mohammedans. The curvature
Of the comet looked so much like q
the favorite weapon OF the
AIohammedans, that all OF Europe
thought 1t portended an invasion by
the dreaded Musse1men.