Arizona republican., 1910-05-20
SCIENTISTS LOST
 THE COMETS TAIL
SERIOUS ERROR IN ARRANGE.
 MENT OF SCHEDULE.
Republicans Comet Expert m Position
 to Say "i Told You So."

The comet department of The Re . publican enjoys the distinction in the . scientific world of having voiced the ! first and only doubt of tn" accuracy of
 the schedule fixed by the astronomers ] for Halley's comet. This doubt was i expressed three weeks ago some time ! after the appearance of the comet in | the eastern sky.
 i IL was based upon the nightly ob- 1 scrvations by the head of the comet . department. showing the variation of the rising of the comet from morning 1 to morning The comet expert assumed ! that the published charts of the com : cts orbit was correct. It was an 1 nounced by the astronomers without a
 dissenting voice that the comet would ! h" al pcrihcliOn on April 2u and that the tail of the comet would sweep the earth on May lN.
 According to the charts which are no doubt accurate. the comet at peri i hclion would be at the highest point with respect to the inhabitants of the ! earth. that it would he until it had | passed into the western sky From perihclion. the comet would therefore l rise later every morning.
 1 But after April 20. The Republicans comet expert observed that the comet was apparently gaining on the sun: that is, rising earlier. Either the 1 chart must be wrong and the comet would not pass between the earth
 and the sun at all. ar else the astron-
 omcrs were in error in fixing the date . of perihelion.
 hp rv.ain ,f ha ha continued for more than two weeks after April 2o. There was then brief 1 period within which there was almost no apparent change. It has not been
 more than two weeks since it became
 noticeable that the comet was rising later
 ! The Republicans comet expert as-
 s,rned that the perihelion occurred 1 within the period when no change in 1 the time of the rising of he comet v,Is
 noted
 The time now fixed for entering the | comets tail was rapidly approaching 1 and it was observed that there was moi a correspondingiy rapid change of ! the direction of the tail such as must occur. Though it was increasing in length and was levelinE toward the earth the process was so slow that if was evident that it could not be com pletc by May IS.
 The astronomers themselves. relying upon scientific calculations seemed to have regarded the matter as settled and took no note of the things that
 were worrying The Republicans comet expert
 As late as five days ago Professor Sec of Mare Island announced that the
 comet had practically disappeared from the eastern sky when on the morning before that announcement was made the tail was exceedingly long and luminous. Its brilliancy had suffered little diminution on the fol- lowing morning and on the morning of May IS ii was SD brilliant and there had been so little change in its direc- tion that The Republicans comet eX-
 pert gave out to his friends privately fhe did not want to fly in the faces
 of the astronorners). that there would
 he no passage through the tail of the
 comet that day.
 Yesterday morning. the morning of
 the day when the scientists said the comet might be looked for in the even
 ing western sky. the comets tail was
 q great triangle of light in the east
 There was very noticeable change in
 its shape. II was like the beam of
 huge searchlight starting from point
 not more than twenty degrees south
 cast of the zenith and extending to the
 horizon at q point slightly north of
 where the sun rises. It was broader
 on the horizon than it had ever been
 before. It will possibly be seen Tor
 several mornings. with perhaps dimin-
 ishing brilliancy and length.
 Whether the earth is still to pass
 through the comets tail is now mat
 ter of doubt with the astronomers
 Some of them yesterday thought it
 would not. Some of them stick yet to
 the original calculations and believe