The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-12-22
COMETS JOY WAVE FELT
TAIL OF HOLLEY WONDER rs Al.
READY DOING PECULIAR
THINGS.

READY DOING PECULIAR
THINGS.
London, Dec. 22-The tail" of the
great HALEY comet. which, according
to NJ Camille Flammarion. the French
astronomer, may make every one die
in a delirium of joy or in an agony
of suffocation as it brushes past the
earth, has already made it's humor-
ol,s influence felt at Greenwich obser-
vatory.
A wave of amusement has just been
recorded by the delicate instruments
there. and the astronomer royal and
all his assistants were seen to be
smiling for some abstruse reason as
they peered through their great tele-
scopes.
This may be the first sign of the
paroXysm of mirth and delirum in
which NJ Flammarion says the human
race may perish on or about May IS,
when the 50.000,000-m -mile-long tail of
Halley's comet envelopes the earth
and snatches away all the nitrogen
from the air. leaving us only the too
|
Whatever may happen when it stall
arrives. the astronomers at Green
wich are agreed that Halley's comet,
earth after seventy-sX years absence,
! is the most wondrous of all celestial
pyrotechnic phenomena.
Wonderful "Skyscopes."
Already they have taken many
photographs of 1t. although it is not
yet in sight of the naked eye, and the
pictures they hope to take next April
and May will, it is expected. be the
most wonderful skyscapes ever OBJ
/ tanned.
J Londoners should have a. fine view
OF the great comet, the best they have
i been able to obtain since 1906, when
William the Conqueror and Harold
both thought it was an omen of vic
tory. Next year again, as Tennyson
wrote, lit glares in heaven and flares
upon the Thames as it did in Har-
Odds time, and will be easily visible
from Blacfifriars bridge.
|: Halley's comet has still. however, q
long way to come. 1t is travelling OIL
its 100000 0,000-mile journey in great
haste, and has won the long distance
record Of 1SS.500 600 miles in seventy
seven days.
Its present pace in the direction of
the earth is roughly: 2.500,000 miles
a day, 1876 miles minute, go miles
q second.
At present the world and the comet
are rushing toward each other. The
| earth is swinging on through space
with the yearly motion of it's orbit
| and the comet with constantly ac-
celebrated motion as it approaches the
sun. BY the middle of next May the
comet will be at it's nearest to the
sun. and will then be mere tritle of
16,146.OOO miles from the earth. In
June it will be only 100000 miles
away.
The Chinese astronomers have a
record of the comets actions for the
last 1000 years, an dthere are parcf-
ments in the college of Mandarines
at Canton of twenty-eight authenti-
Gated appearances during that period.
The Comet in History.
1t has always played an important
part in history. The famous Bayeux
tapestry shows a curious scene when
the hairy. fiery comet was seen in
1866 by the conquering Normans.
A group of warriors. seemingly
convulsed with laughter. are seen
gazing at a strange shape in the sky,
supposed to be the comet. but more
nearly resembling a gigantic cockade
from coachman's hat.
! Some scientists cheerfully predict
1t will be the comet and not the world
that will die. DR.. H. H. Turner, in
addressing the British association
said Its probable end will be by dis.
persiOn into swarm of meteors.
Some of these outlying meteors
our earth may encounter at times,
and SO be lit up for few moments
by the expiring fragments of what
was once terrifying comet"
| Astronomers the world over are
preparing for the coming of the comet.
At the solar physics observatory,
South Kensington, the mirrors have
been resilvered and the telescope
room put in readiness.
England and America are keenly
competing for the fullest records. 1t
is great astronomical race, fer at
present all the discoveries of plane
tary satellites since the seventeenth
century are equally divided between
the two nations. Each country claims
eight discoveries.
Expeditions have been equipped in
both England and America for taking
observations of the comet during the
total eclipse of the sun in May. 1910.
The best positions will be in the ant
arctic regions and in Australia.
! Mr.. Mclean, the English astron-
pomer, is travelling in Tasmania for
this purpose. and an American party
will go to Honolulu to watch the
! skies.