The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-05-17
COMET WILL HIT EARTH
 TOMORROW NIGHT SURE
(Continued from First Page) COMET HURRIES ON
 AT RATE OF FORTY
 MILES EACH SECOND.

Washington, May 17.-Twenty-sev- en million miles off into space Hal ley's comet IS performing all sorts of lofty tumbling today and is hurrying of some forty miles a second.
 Out at the naval observatory in the midst of telescopes, spectroscopes and other queer looking inStrume entS, Pro- lessor Asaph Hall and his corps of scientists spent several hours with the comet this morning. According to Professor Hall the tail of the comet will sideswipe the earth tomorrow evening and we will be floundering s about in it the better part of We'd Desday night.
 But all the sky sharps here agree that there is no cause for apprehen- sion. The nOXiOuS vapOrS of the tail, if it possessed any, will be unable to penetrate the earth's heavy wrapping of atmosphere and beyond the ethereal fireworks and illumination of the sky, the comet will slide by with out extraordinary incident.
 According to the observers at the dage of the comet this morning stretched for some 92 or 93 degrees across the heavenly way or about 25,000,000 miles. AS the scientists watched, the tail was first visible. A fan-shaped ray of light climbed up
  o'clock this morning, branching and expanding as it arose until when it circled lazily into a sort of rainbow against the dark sky, the flaming ball that marks the head and body of the heavenly wanderer hove into sight. have to pass through several million miles of the comets tail, but the composition of the tail, from spec troscOpic reading, has been deter mined to be the next thing to a vacuum. The sky sharps estimate that it contains less than single molecule or particle of solid matter to the cubic yard. That is why they are not worrying about the contact of the tail with the earth.
 eff you could take a cubic mile of the comets tail and condense it to it's solid dimensions said Professor Hall today, you would lose it. There would not be enough of it to take notice of"
 On Saturday and Sunday nights just after sunset will be the best time of all to see the comet. It will ap- pear these evenings just south of the point in the western sky where the sun sinks behind the horizon. It will be brightest on these evenings and will then steadily grow dinner.
 Boston, May 17.-Predicting that Halley'S comet, DefOre this week IS past. will rival the great comet of 1921 for brilliance, but differing widely as to its constituent elements, Harvard astronomers today are all agog with preparation.
 The exact hour, according to com putations here, at which the transit will begin is 10:50 D. m. tomorrow, and the transition will continue until 11:4O At that time Professor R. w. Wilson of Harvard believes there is likely to be shower of charged par ticles in pyrotchnical display when they strike the earth's atmosphere but this is disputed by other scientists.
 No observations were taken last eV- ening at the Harvard observatory, but Professor R. w. Wilson estimates the length of the tail of the comet at 31, 300. 900 miles. Professor Wilson states that tomorrow the air will be filled with millions of meteorites, which will become red hot as soon as they strike our atmosphere. Nevertheless these particles will be so minute that no harm can result from them. The par ticles will be so small that they will be almost invisible to the naked eye but the total number will cause a slight glow to the atmosphere.
 Professor O. c. Wendell in his ob- servation discovered with the, aid of a 15 inch equatorial telescope that the brightness of the nucelus of the comet is now extremely faint with magn1- tude of about 9.O9. The nucelus was distinctly brighter than on May G. when it's magnitude was about 7.O6. The total light of the comet has in- creased tremendously in brilliancy. It's