The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1910-03-10

Halley's comet has been traced back
definitely to the year IL, b. c. Chinese
astronomers recorded that visitation
and subsequent ones. Some authori-
ties trace it back to 500 years B. G.
On its return this year it was dis
covered almost exactly in the region
of space where eminent mathematic-
ians had computed it's position. At
that time it was over 300, 900, 900 miles
from the sun. That was In Septem-
Der. At midnight on December /, 1t
was on the meridian, a few degrees
south of exactly overhead. 1t APP
preached the earth to within 1875, 000,-
600 miles, but comet and earth are
separating now owing to contrary
orbital motions. 1t is rapidly APP
proching the sun and March oath will
be exactly on opposite side of the sun
from the earth, as you will note in
the diagram showing positions and
dates April Goth il will swing out
in the morning sky, men ~appearant-
ly back toward the sun, but in reality
swinging in to pass between sun and
earth, about May 18th. 1t will be in
' loIDlC LOl a SAIOll lillc DSlOIt 6lli
after this event, and then will appear
in the evening sky, and slowly vanish
ing will return again to the point Of
its appelion, several hundred millions
Of miles beyond the orbit Of Neptune,
whence our sun would be a glow
worm light in a cosmic night.
A little westward of directly over
mead about eight o'clock in the wen
ing, il you care to look, you will no.
tice a little cluster Of stars; the
Pleiades. Only a few degreese west Is
the rudy star, Mars, and about half
way down the sky is a star of yellow
ish hue, Saturn, these mark almost
exactly the comets path in January.
High in the northeast is the Big
Dipper. Everybody knows some
thing about the Dipper. Notice
the star at the bend in the handle--
Mizar, and notice nesting closely to
it a companion of much lesser light;
Alcor. You may have to look sharply
TO see it. for the ancient Arabians ac-
counted 1t a test of eyesight to dis
cover it. Richard A. Proctor says
that the distance separating those
stars is so great that the orbit OF the
great comet of 1911 would only span
o~ne-fourth of it. The comet of 1911
hal an orbit six times as great as
Halley's comet. This means thai you
could place twenty-four HALEY comet
orbits end to end and have a chain
barely long enough to connect these
two stars. The orbit of Halley's
comet is between thirty-fve and forty
thousand millions of miles.
Divide a mile into inches; the inch
would represent the distance of the
earth from the sun. and the mile, the
distance it would take the suns light
to travel in a year; a light year; as 1t
is termed technically. And yet, there
are stars so remote, 1t is affirmed,
thousand years.
Wonderful, is IL not? But listen to
this from an astronomer who stands
among the first in this country today.
Prof. Edgar Larkin of Mount Lowe
observatory, says that the thousands
or stars we see by natural vision may
be cast aside as negligible in comput-
ing the sun and world material in
the Universe.
Please don't worry about what Is
going to happen from this visitation
of Halley's comet. There Is "directiv-
ity in matter" and all is held
by leash of laW---
Get In the attitude Of mind Emer-
son was when an enthusiastic re-
ligionist declared the world would
speedily end on a given date. The
grea transcendentalist reflected q mo.
ment and said: well, i guess I can
get along without It.