The Baraboo news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1884-1911, 1910-01-27
SOMETHING ABOUT
HALLEY'S COMET.
PAPER READ AT MENDOZA, ILL.
BY A STUDENT FROM BARABOO
WISCONSIN.


follows:
What is it that arouses interest, that
fosters thought and study in any
object. creed, principle, or whatsoever
it NAV be? Is it not because we wish
to learn something new about that TO
which our attention may be attracted?
We may rest assured that any branch
of science, any material Or abstract
subject will be abandoned and relegat-
ed to obscurity as soon as it has been
traced by thoughtful men to its ultl-
mate conclusion. A living subject to
Tbe kept alive must be continually add
ed to. Interest must be aroused by
realization that there are things to be
learned that are not now known.
This is why astronomy has been a
1--WE subject. This is why it is more
alive today than ever before. The rea-
son why host of gifted men are best
owing their time and their talents up
on the study of empyrean affairs is,
that they realize what mountain OF
information may be gathered from
this field.
We would not presume upon the
years of study and observation of the
votaries of astronomy by attempting
to enumerate what this science has
taught the world. We cannot even
stop to tell what it, by means of phot-
oography, has showen concerning the
origin, the lives and deaths of other
worlds and universes outside your
own.
We may not pause to speak OF
what it has brought out concerning
our own system, with its central sun,
with It's circling planets flung out into
space so remote that the sun appears
to them but small orb of light yet
they implicitly obey his will.
We can barely stop to mention the
meteOrs; those dark black objects,
which, while moving around the
sun, sometimes come into con-
tract with our atmosphere, thus
giving us our brilliant shooting stars
and occasionally meteoric showers.
Nor may we pause here to explain
the phenomena of eclipses, or speak of
their interest to astronomers.
Our purpose here is for just one brie1
moment TO direct atten tion to a class
of celestial visitors in which astrono
mers and the people are particularly
interested at the present time. There
is perhaps no other class of celestia
phenomena which in times past has
aroused deeper fear and admiration
more wonder and perpleXity than has
this class-the comets. They appear
to come from nowhere and vanish
destined for the same place. They
have the appearance of a ball of glow
ing, fire, with tail of streaming ligh
which at times tags behind the main
body and again is compelled TO go be
fore.
Comets came from and receded int
the abyss of heaven for centuries anC
centuries before they were properly
studied and classified, yes even before
the most intelligent astronomer
really considered that their appear
-ance might be explained in any othe
way than as omens to presage evil ant
warn people of danger.
1t has been recorded many times il
hCx 90
flaming swords, las they were called
have appeared moving across the starr,
SLY, striking terror into the hearts o
men causing emperors to abdicate, war
to be fought and Skeptics to turn re
.llgious. But the time came whel
thoughtful astronomers turned thei
attention and their implements t.
these flaming wonders to discover hov
great was their distance, of what they
were composed, from whence the.
came and whittier they were going.
Kepler observed the comet o
1907 and announced that comet
were celestial bodies which move il
straight lines and after passing tn
earth recede indefinitely into space. /
few years later Newton demonstrate
that they were subject to the laws c
gravitation. But it remained for Si
Edmund HALEY to discover, by tn
comet of 1882, the true relation of thes
strange visitors to our own solar sy!
tenn. He camped, so to speak, on th
comets trail. He calulated the cur
of it's orbit, determining its path to b
a parabola. He then set about con
pairing this comet with those of formt
days. In the course of his labors /
came across the comet of 1907 whic