Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1909-10-08
Halley's Comet Coming.

EAAtCA 1lt dUoCASC VI SCNCAty~hNC year
that monster of the sky. Halleys comet
is close to its return. Already it is siehte,
and photographed after being waited 70
for years and looked for for months o.
September II Professor Wolff. Of Heidel
berg observatory. Germany. got his grea
telescope on the wandering son of the sola
family and wired all the principal observa
tories to prepare to welcome the prodiea
home.
They are few who have access to tn,
great telescopes. but those who do may nov
sight this celestial marvel in advance o.
the rest of mankind. who will have to wal
till December to gaze upon the wondrou.
spectacle.
Now the question is raised, Where ha:
this comet been for seventy-five years. anC
where does it come from nowS The answer
is that it has been away beyond the orbit
of Neptune, the most distant world of oul
solar family of which we have any knowl.
edge. We are staggered by the earths
distance of 100000 miles from the
sun. but Halley's comet has been thirty
five times as far as that and from that dis
lance is returning to point only 65,OOO.-
900 miles from the sun, nearer than the
planet Venus.
Although the comet can be actually seen
over only very small part of its course Of
thousands of millions of miles. such is the
nature of its curve that the wonderful
science of mathematics enables astrono-
mers to track it perfectly.
About last January. say the astronomers
it crossed the orbit of Jupiter and was
100000. 900 miles from us. Next February
it will cross the orbit of Mars and will
have taken 4O0.000.000 miles from Its
distance. About the last of March it is
expected to cross the orbit of the earth.
About ten days later it will cross the orbit
of Venus. 1t will then swing about the
sun. reaching its perihelion, or point of
nearest approach to the sun, May 10, ac-
cording to one calculation, though accord
ing to another it may be there some time
in April. 1t then begins to push back into
space again. and in so doing it again
crosses the orbits of the planets about as
follows: Venus, May %; earth, June 10 /;
Mars. July %; Jupiter, nearly year later.
If the comet twice crosses the orbit of
the earth it becomes question of the ut
most interest whether our globe is liable
to be run into. 1t is reassuring to be told
that the earth will be at the two crossing
points about November and May l. 1t
will thus be seen that we make a good
escape. though little narrow in the latter
case, inasmuch as there is margin of only
about month and a-half at that point
But even if the earth were at the crossing
points at the same time with the comet
nothing could happen for the reason that
the two bodies do not travel in the same
plane or on the same level. At the first
crossing the comet goes over and at the
second it goes under the earth. so that
there is no danger of collision at either
point any more than there is of collision
between surface car and an elevated train
on the one hand or between surface car
and subway train on the other. 1t has
been calculated that the nearest possible
approach of the comet to the earth would
be 100000 miles. but we shall be mil
lions of miles farther separated than that
even when nearest.
1t has been ascertained that the period
of Halley's comet is in general about sew
enty-five years. though it is sometimes
little less and sometimes several years
more, the differences being due to the in
fluence of the planets which it passes in
going and coming. This is therefore a
historic comet and by no means an up
start, for it has recently been traced back
to more than 200 years before Christ.
In 1866 William the Conqueror was terri
flying England, and the comet was looked
upon as an omen of terrible disaster. In
I456 all Europe was moved to terror by
this enormous sword of light held aloft
nightly in the sky. and the pope directed
that to the Ave Maria should be added the
prayer, Lord, save us from the Turk, the
comet and the devil" 1t was at this time
that the monday call to prayer by the
.inging of church bells was introduced.
which has never been abandoned. In 1859
he comet first came back according to pre-
fiction of the great Sir Edmund HALEY, the
friend of Newton, and it henceforth took
upon itself his name.
There always has been and still is much
If mystery as to the nature of comets.
Where they came from no one knows, but
hey are in the universe journeyine through
space. When first sighted a comet looks
only like faint nebula changing its posi-
lion among the fixed stars. AS 1t draws
nearer the sun it becomes brighter and
begins to shoot out tail. Yet nearer. the
head can be recognized as quite distant
from the tail and bright core at the CEN
ter of the head called the nucleus. Great
comets like Halley's are described as pre-
,entine head as large as the moon. shin
ng with the brightness OF Venus and
stretching out the tail over one-third of
the sky. Halley's comet has shown a tail
forty-five degrees long. which is equal to
a procession of ninety full moons. As it
does not always appear the same. it is
likely on the present occasion to have
ength either greater or less.
Halley's comet will not be an apparition
Of a moment. like a meteor. nor of week
Or two, like the moon. On its last appear
ance it was visible the larger part of
year. and certainly for months we shall
have our sky, partly at night and partly
in the morning, transformed by the pres
ence of this not unwelcOme stranger Cook
or Peary at the north pole and Shackleton
at the south pole would each be cheered
by its radiance. and seventy-fve years
hence very few very old men will trem-