The log cabin Democrat., 1910-04-08

, State Normal, in the current numbe of the Normal Echo. According t.
 his calculations the comet, beginning : today, should be visible in the east , ern sky shortly before sunrise. Th' paper, which is reproduced in full be
 low, was written for publication th'
 third week in March, and this dat'
 should be borne in mind in reading
 the article.
 The mention of the comet brings back vivid scenes before the eyes of the older generation Those who re member Donati's comet (1S5S) with all it's splendor, or the comet of 1882 know what to expect with the return of Halley's comet after it's seventy five years of absence. Others of us who have not been so fortunate as to see or remember any of these impress sive objects look forward with great anticipation to the coming of the most historic and renowned of all comets.
 A writer has aptly said that the history of Halley's comet is the his tory of civilization. This comet ap- peared in 1866 and was regarded by ] William the Conqueror as an omen of victory for his English invasion. When it appeared in 1456 as the | Turks besieged Constantinople, the 1 Mohammedans regarded 1t as a favor able sign because of it's crescent-shap- ed tail. Likewise it has frequently figured in the worlds history. Rec ords and references to it among the Chinese date back as early as 240 B. C. It is reported on at least 24 differ ent returns in the worlds history.
 It's period varies from 75 1-2 to 79 years. Edmund Haley, close friend of Sir Isaac Newton, was the first man to determine it's path and predict it's return. He made an extensive study of the comets orbit during it's visit in 1882 and set a date for it's re- turn, hence it bears his name. As he knew he would not live to see the comet again, he left the world a re- quest for recognition which reads: "Wherefore, if it should return ac- cording to our predictions about the year 175S, impartial posterity will not refuse to acknowledge that this was first discovered by an Englishman. :" It returned in 1159 and again in 1885. At the present visit it was discover ed by Prof. Max Wolf, a German as tronomer at Heidelberg, about the middle of last September. It made it's appearance nearly four months before it was expected, and thus the scientific world was somewhat surprised. A heavenly body which moves in a large eccentric orbit with the relatively small mass of a comet is easily af- fected by the gravtation of the plan cts, especially Jupiter and Saturn, which tend to retard or accelerate it's motion through space. Therefore, it becomes a tedious problem to calcu- l late these perturbations, and corre- 1 spondingly difficult to predict a re- turn accurately. A periodic comet does not pass perihelon any two con 1 secutive times in exactly the same pe- riod, and Halley's comet has been known to vary almost five years. It's close passage to the earth this time will undoubtedly affect it's next pe- riod slightly, and thus it is easy to see how a similar proximity to Jupi- ter, should it happen, which has over 300 times the mass of earth, might i change it's orbit decidedly.
 1 Its current visit is of great interest because it is expected that the earth will pass through the comets tail, as the latter passes between the earth and the sun in May. Naturally we ast and wonder what will happen. ! Will our atmosphere be poisoned by gases or burning meteOrites?
 Similar events took place in 1919 and 1861 with other comets, and no one was the wiser until long after it 1 had happened When we are plunged | through the tip of the comets tail the head will be fourteen million miles distant, nearly sixty times as far as the moon. A comets tail is composed of highly rarified gases or extremely small particles far separated, and is so thin that faint stars may he seen through it without diminution in brightness. Hence very little will ever penetrate our atmosphere.
 Several times in the history of the world the public was panic-stricker by erroneous forecasts of collisions
 with comet. Yet many reliable scien-
 lists believe that even a collision with
 the head of comet would result ir
 no serious damage except to the com
 ct. It has been estimated by Prof
 Pickering of Harvard that it has DOS sibly happened at least 30 times since the existence of life upon the globe. From the time of it's discovery last
 September it has been shifting abou in the evening sky. It has gradually been growing brighter, but at no tim , has it exceeded the magnitude of ; telescopic object The writer had tn pleasure of finding it on the evening , of February 1 as a very faint nebula , object in the constellation Pisces
 was then visible in a two-inch tele
 scope shortly after twilight in tn
 western sky. The planet Saturn wa
 the only conspicuous object near, be
 ing about forty degrees to the Jeff t The comet was moving westwar ; from night to night among some yer
 faint stars, appearing like a sma : nebula with an indefinite nucleus nea
 it's center. This is explained by tn