Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1909-09-09
WATCH For TIE big SHOW ~
TIKI, Sky

| Inc biggest free show that tlis gene.
ration will have seen will soon bc given
! liz arena will he high in the Sky. where
everybody NAV 500 II and there will be
no need Of Crowding Prof. Garrett p
| SerViss, noted as q writer on ponula-
| astronomy, tolls all about It in the cur
! rent number Of IInmnton's Magazine I,
| WIZ be on"-StIr show tho return of
! taiieNS comet. Tho last time il was
| seen by the people on earth was in 1>3j
ana II Is now in the last stages Of a
Journey OF 6Soo,on,0o0 miles which had
10 be made to play this return date.
Again. Notwithstanding the advance
OF science fear will minele with Won
der NJ its apnarition A thrill of an
prehension VIII be felt by millions who
see its fiery head plowing through the
stars and it's sword -shapcd tail brand
iShed over tho earth, as if mouitorv Of
unknown and unavoidable evil
Astronomers have calculated that Hal
leys comet must have crossed Inside the
orbital distance of Jupiter from the sun
about the 1st Of last January In the
mlddle or January It's distance from the
earth was estimated at ito0o0.61 miles
During the lat" fall u is expected to be-
come visible to the naked eve after lav-
ing, for months before. been Photographic
ed and studied with toloecoros It Will
slowly brighten during next winter. be-
ing visible from nearly al parts of the
earth. Gradually approa ching the sun
II will make It's perihelon passage. at a
distance of about G6 900 600 miles from tho
solar globe, on the 18th of next April. ITS
greatest brightness is expected to occn'
after the pcrhelion passage. when 1t will
draw nearer the earth. ana be visible
In both the evening and the morning
sky But at that time II viii be- south
of the celestial equator, and consequent
~ better seen from the southern hem
isphere. About May 18th the comet will
be only 100000 or 100000 miles from
the EARTH although for more than a
month It will have Been rctreating from
the sun.
Just what its appearance viii be no
enc can predict It is the ProteuG Of
space. It may blaze with amazing splen-
dor. ms 1t did when trembling Europe
saw 1t in an avatar of the conuucrirg
sword Of the Prophet Of Mecca. or it NAV
he relatively insignificant But in any
event II will fix the attention Of man
kind, and for astronomers will he the
most interesting phenomenon seen in the
sky for many decades
Prof Serviss, in this article, gives data
which can probably be found nowhere else
in lay publications. The returns of Hal
ley's comet. he SAYS, have recently hcen
traced back to tho year 30 p. C.. hut
n has probably hcen revolving in It's
eliptical orbit very much longer than
that.
Iiallcy's discovery after it's appcar-
ance in 1859, that II was a regular visitor
to the neiEhborhood of the sun has AL
ways ranked az one of the capital fri
umphs Of astronomy. His suspicion that
the comet of 1852 was not paying its
first visit to the sun was based upon
the similarity between it's orbit i'm space
and the orbits of two other comets.
which had appeared in 1897 and 1881 re-
spectvcly. de did not guess it's Identity
with the comets of 1856 and 1860 If the
three were identical, then the same
comet ought to return again after an
other interval of about seyenty-six
years. Accordingly. HALEY ventured the
prediction that the comet would be back
again In 1853. He died in l7i9. seventeen
years before the fulflmcnt of his pro-
phccy.