The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-10-29
Have You Seen the Comet2

1t is a stellar attraction and tue star
is tramp. The stage is b~nnul,s So :
the heavens themselves which abound
in stars while this Nonueriu, i,erio me =
enacts his role. He Is not the tramp of
the shabby clothes with h, caft.. u. OF
the tomato variety Slug %, er his Shout
der, and a tendency Z" use his annual
pass, the tie kind, across ,he country,
nor tramp steamer OF ttte roll ny deep
but what is rarer than ALI these, a tramp
comet. Halley's ctnel il s,hie in " u
northeastern sky at an early hour. This
celestial tramp does not Sc. m to have
the big tail which usually adorns
comets, and consequently may be mis-
taken for brightly glowing planet by
people who are not engaged in the pas
time of hunting comets. This one will
be visible for several years, hence every
body will have a good chance to get ac
quainted with the wanderer in bound
less space. But very few will renew
their acquaintance with him, as he will
be seventy-tive years on the way, ere
he again comes into the regions of the
sky which our little earth is traversing.
Everybody knows that the comet fore
BODIES evil and disaster. No doubt it
does. And the fellows who have been
betting their good money on Taft will
believe it, in a few short weeks.
DR.. Samuel Phelps Leland, the famous
astronomer, writes about this celestial
vagabond as follows:
The comet now visible in the evening
in the northeastern sky is one of the
most interesting Of it's class. 1t is
known as Halley's comet, in honor of it's
ri iCan Hol- 4.
then made by HALEY and Sir Isaac New
ton, which identified the couet with
one reported in 1881 and in 1907.
This established it's periodicity. Cal
culations were made for its return
in 1853. Clairault undertook the math-
ematical part and formulated the alge-
braical problems. But there remained
an immense labor in converting these
into tho numerical formula This was
undertaken by two mathematjcians, one
of whom was woman. Madame Hor-
tense Leplante, and the other the ia
nous astronomer, Lalande. During
more than six months they labored in
cessantly to put into numbers the al
gebraical formula. Lelande was the
first to complete the calculations. The
result was that the planet Saturn would
delay the comets return 102 days, and
the planet Jupiter 51S days, in all $40
days. This meant that it's revolution
would be one year and eight months
longer than the previous one. It's re-
turn was fixed at April ID, 1859. This
prediction excited wonder and amaze
ment throughout Europe. And it was
worthy of it all. 1t was the most dar-
ing thing that astronomers had ever at
tempted. AS predicted, however, the
comet came, and followed the indicated
course among the consultations. This
began a new era in cometarv astronomy.
In view of the fact that Uranus and
Neptune-the giant planets at the ex-
tremity of our system were not then
discovered so that their influence on
the comet could not be determined, the
result was truly marvellous. The period
OF its revolution between 1859 and 1885
was 2S,OO5 days, but the period of it's
former revolution was 27,9S7 days.
Calculations have now heen made
showing it's present revolutions to be
799 days shorter than the preceding
one, and according to PontecouIant
the comet will reach it's nearest point
in the heavens to us on Nay "a, 1910.
! Between 1885 and 1873 the comet was
travelling away from us at uncomfortable
rate OF speed. In 1873 it doubled the
cape on it's icy winter, and since then
has been flying toward the sunny sum
mer OF our sky at a constantly increas-
ing speed.
Our earth moves in it's orbit 1870 O0C
miles day. The speed of the comet is
l2S times greater. Its attendant train
j with it's banners of fire is 100000
miles in length. This means that if it's
nucleus We're at the sun, it's attendant
train, lying in the line of our earth
would extend 100000 miles beyond
/! our orbit. Our celestial visitant will
grow brighter until May, 1910 and will
shine in unutterable splendor. He is
an object of absorbing interest not tc
the astronomer alone, but to every in.
telligent person.