Arizona republican., 1910-01-21
.HAlLEYs COMET FIRST
 OBSERVED N PHOENIX
THE CELESTIAL HOBO GOT IN
 BEFORE HE WAS DUE.
Seen by Many Sober Citizens in the
 Western Sky Last Night.

Halleys comet. whose advent has been heralded by the astronomers. swung within the range of vision of all Arizona last night just after sunset. It was plainly visible to the unaided eye in Phoenix. While it is now probably visible over a large part of the south first observed in Phoenix. owing doubtless to the clearness of the at mosphere here.
 There were probably fifty telephone calls at this office last night in regard to the comet At first, the young man, who answers the phone, replied that the comet was not visible. He had been reading the scientific magazines which gave the date of the comets appearance as early spring. Later on, when the calls continued, he climbed to the roof of The Republican building and saw the comet for himself-just as it was setting.
 Either the astronomers are at fault or else they neglected to take into their calculations the peculiar pellucid at mosphere of Arizona which makes the stars brighter and renders comet visible long before it can be seen else where.
 In a general way the prophecies have indicated that the comet would ap- pear to the naked eye in May. At that time it would be in the constella- tion Pisces. At sunset Pisces is near ly at the zenith. yet Halley's comet made it's first appearance close to the horizon in the west and quickly fol- lowed the sun beneath the western mountains.
 In regard to the apparent tenth of the tail of the comet the testimony of observers differed widely. One man said it look ed to be fifteen feet long. while an: other said in the neighborhood of three inches Both were right: and they were also wrong There Is no foot rule placed up in the sky for l measuring comets by, though it would 1 be quite handy if there were one. The comet mght be three inches long if I the foot rule is held several feet from | the eye: or it might appear fifteen
 
 | placed a quarter of mile or so away .ner-but the iiv'sj"-s r. circle between the observer and the comet. | The proper way of measuring comets | is by degrees-not the kind you find on thermometers in Phoenix in sum mer-but the divisions of a circle. Several .guesses were that Halley's ' comet as seen last night. is about two degrees long.
 The comet was first seen last | night about 6:15 o'clock and fif- teen minutes later it had set. It will probably grow brighter and the | tail extend as it hears the sun so that every night it will be most brilliant and unusual sight in the western sky.
 There are very few men living today who saw Hailey's comet when | it last visited the confines of this earth That was in 1885. The comet returns to the earth every 7S years Its orbit has been figured out so | that it's visitations can be foretold with great accuracy.
 There are some romantic astron- omers who have tried to show that l Halley's comet is the Star of Beth
 ,ehem. Simple calculations vii
 show that one of its appearance:
 must have been very near the be l ginning of the Christian era anC
 when the difference in time is talk
 en into consideration, between thu
 old and new styles of chronology. ;
 very fair case may be made out b!
 those who believe that this come
 apepared at the time of the birtl
 of Christ.
 It is known that Halley's come
 flashed like a scimetar in the six.
 when the Turks captured Constan
 -sm suoIIno pug 9eVI III eIdoul
 mento of the occasion is preserve in some old prayer books whic
 contain the sentence, From tn Turk, the devil and the Comet, de
 liver us"
 The last great comet appeared 1882. and then. as now, the ques tion arose as to what would hap pen to the earth if the comet struc
 it. The theory of astronomers i
 that the tail of the comet is mad
 LID of gases, so light and tenuou
 that if it should sweep across th
 earth it would not even disturb
 fly seated on the flagpole at th
 city hall. Stars may easily be see
 through the tail and are not in tf least obscured. The nucleus head. is made of more solid stuf but that it is not very formldabl can be learned from the fact th'
 comets are thrown out or the orbits by the attraction of tn
 earth and other worlds: while tt |. old earth just rolls along in th same path and pays no more al { taption to the celestial scatterbra
 tan a locomotive does for Snat ths darts at theheadlight.
 | DREAMING.