The Bad River news. [volume] (Philip, Stanley County, S.D.) 19??-1912, 1910-01-27
Ha|Iey'S Comet

leN'S comet after lapse of over
>eNentN-ilNe years IS very much
like waiting for a train. We know
the track on which the train will
speed toward us: but whether the
tram VIII be OF time or not. we
cannot know. We know the orbit
of the comet. but not the exact
minute when it will swing around
the sun. A photographic plate
at the end of a telescope will per
form the functions of IA celestial
telegram for us. lnaSmuch as it
will tell us how late the comet may
be and when it will glide into
full view. The past year telescope
cameras searched the heavens for
a hazey disk of light. so dim that
the unaided eye could not see it.
TO Professor Max Wolf. Of Hell
delbery, belongs the honor of hay
lng first detected the comet on
September IL. 1909. As a tribute
to modern mathematical astron-
omy it may be stated that he found
1t very nearly in the exact position
indicated by the calculations.
The return Of IIalIey's comet is
an astronomical event of much
plth and moment. because it was
the very first bod v of its kind for
which a timetable was computed,
because an opportunity is presented
OF revising that table. and
because it will enable the astron
omer for the first time to obtain
photographs of its striking features
for comparison with photographs
to be taken by unborn astronomers
in 1856 or 1887.
OF such mathematical impor.
tancc is the return of Halley's
Comet that at various times scie. :
lists have spent months in calcuh-
ting the exact period of its revoIu-
ton. Even now, W hen comets are
discovered at the rate of two or
three a year, astronomers thought
that it would not become striking
object before some time in the
middle of April. 1910. Such are
the accelerations and rctardations
suffered by every comet as it sweeps
past the planets of our solar sys-
tenn that absoluteness of prediction
is well-nigh impossible. Often d
comet is twisted out of it's normal
orbit by planetary attraction, with
the result that we may lose sight
OF it forever. Jupiter is responsi.
BILE for many reflections. Thus il
1886, he wrenchcd a comet out O1
it's course and derailed it. as it were
and reduced its period of revolution
from tWenty-Seven to seven years
In l119 a comet known as LeXell's
! glldcd SO near him that it was
never seen again. All told. .Jupi
ter has captured a family of thirty
comets, and holds them by yirtu.
of his enormous attraction. Sa
turn has similarly acquired two
comets, Uranus three, and Neptune
six. Obviously comets cours'
may be both devious and uncertain
OF all the comets that have eve
been discovered, Halley's comet i
the most important, because it i
the most historical. 1t flashed up
on the world when Egypt wa
young and Greece was a wilderness
inhabited by sayages. Perhaps
! will continue to return when man
} kind is old and decrepit, and tn
earth is entering that last tragi
stage of it's existence when it viii
be reduced to a cold, dead, desolat
world. Yet, ancient as the come
is it's scientific history begins wit
the man whose name it bears an
, with Sir Isaac Newton.
1t was Edmund HALEY VIII
urged upon Newton the necessit
of publishing that famous manu-
! script in which the laws of grav
, tation are laid down: it was Halle
who paid for the printing out c