The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-10-29
HALLEY'S COMET
IS ON ITS WAY
TOWARDS THE EARTH
1.-THE MOST IMPORTANT DIsCOv-
ERY THIS YEAR"

| Ets1 THIS YEAR."
Halley's comet was sighted in the
middle Of last month by Prof. Wolf
of the Koenigstuhl Observatory at
Heidelberg, and has already been
photographed on its terrific rush to-
ward the earth. From now on it
will become steadily more brilliant,
revealing its stage of greatest bril-
lance toward the end of next May,
when it will be about ten million
miles from the earth. 1t will then
be visible to the naked eye for a
short time after sunset, low down
in the western sky.
The Harvard Observatory has
been designated by the leading as
tronomers of this country to watch
its course. This makes the views
of Prof. E. G. Pickering, Director of
the Observatory, doubly interesting,
as he is really the official watcher of
the famous comet.
The most important discovery
in the astronomical world this year
is the finding of Halley's comet, for
which astronomers the world over
have been eagerly watching for
many months" said Prof. e. c.
Pickering last week. THE comet
was discovered by Prof. Wolf on
September 18th in right ascension 6
hours, 18 minutes, IL seconds; de-
clination II degrees, II minutes
north. He telegraphed the news to
the Observatory at Kiel, to which
astronomers all over Europe report,
and it, in turn, was cabled to the
Harvard Observatory, which has
been selected by the astronomers of
this country to watch the comet.
Since that time the comet has
been sighted from the Harvard OBJ
servatory and photographed. Prof.
S. w. Burnham of the Yerkes Obser-
vatory at Lake Geneva reports that
he has observed the comet with the
naked eye, aided by telescope, and
that he has two negatives of it. l
understand that it has also been
| photographed at the Lisk Observa-
tory.
Scientific progress has revolu-
/ tionized the method of making as
Economical observations. Photo
graphy has been substituted for the
| telescope when it is desired to dis
cover minute object in the utter
most realms of the sky.
EARLY in the morning of Sept.
10th two Photographic plates were
exposed at the Royal Observatory,
| Greenwich, for about half an hour.
They were directed toward the space
in the sky where Crommelin's cal
culations showed the comet to be
on that date. On the first inspec-
tlon of the plates nothing out of
the common was detected. Two
days later, on the 18th, Prof. Wolf
telegraphed that he had discovered
the comet. A re-examination of the
Greenwich plates enabled the OBJ
servers to detect faint impressions
of it,
with the telescopes which were
available in the eighteenth century
Halley's comet of 175S-59 was dis
covered seventy-seven days before
perlhelion; on its next appearance,
in 1885, telescopes enabled astrono-
mers to detect it 1O2 days before
perihelion, but the Photographic
method of the twentieth century
has disclosed it about 22O days be-
fore perihelion. We can therefore
say that photography has found the
comet somewhere about 1OO,O0O,OOO
miles further away than it can be
viewed through telescope.
"To Prof. Burnham, of the Yer
kes Observatory, belongs the credit
of being the first man in America to
see the comet through telescope,
and to Mrs. Wilmina P. Fleming,
Curator of Astronomical Photo
graphs at Harvard, belongs the dis
tinction of being the first woman to
see it.
I'VE will be able to see the comet
with the naked eye and without the
aid of telescopes about May 18th
next. The earth passes through the
tail of the comet at that time. There
need be no cause for alarm. Even
at that time we shall be some TO-
100000 miles distant from it.
Prior to the time of HALEY. |
comets were supposed to be only oc-
casional visitors. But HALEY found, |
by calculating, that the comet travel |
led in closed curve, that it would |
return to the solar system at inter-
walls of about seventy-five years. In
1882 HALEY declared that this
comet, which now bears his name,
would return in 1859. At that time
his prediction was received with in
credulity, but when on Christmas
of the year he named the comet was
seen in the heavens, his calculations
were remembered, and it was ac-
knowledged that the comet was a
recurring one.
THE comet was again seen in
1885, and has been absent since that
date. When first sighted it was
very large and brilliant. sinca +ban