El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-10-03
New Comet May Be Visible
to the Naked Eye in the
Next Few Weeks.

HAT there Is an interesting posi-
bflity Of the Delavan comet now
L in the morning sky near Auriga
becoming a striking naked EYE object
within the next few weeks has drawn
wide attention to it. and its progress
and DEVELOPMENT are being watched
with eager attention by thousands OF
star razers. At the present writing
II is only a hay little streak TO the
unafded eve but a low power telescope
or field glass shows il as about fifth
MAGNITUDE star with a tail OF ABOUT
two degrees in length It's az proAlIlas =
path through the heavens Is gwen sven ~
me mans in this issue with seEerai
dates for reference as TO its posltlon-
on July % it was 226 million miles
from the earth and by the IlrsL OF &c
tober il viii be 147 million miles as
tant when it will have reached us
Greatest brightness and II IS beneNeo
will have developed into very inter
esting naked eye comet On OCloDe.
26 il will be found in the norlhW est
lust after sunset, some six OF seven De
[-rees north of the bright star arc
Turus. and in close proximity TO the
position occupied by Donaus comet N
the fall Of the year 1888, when VIII VIII
be recalled by the older readers VINO
saw that most beautiful comet rms
fact however, is only COINCIDENCE
as Is the fact Of its appearance at the
time of the present great european
war. the superstitiOus being given 10
associate the appearance OF comets
with great wars
This comet was discovered by Paul
T Delavan. astronomer at the La Flala
observatory in the Argentine republic
South America, on December q, 1918
It's distance from the sun al. the time
of discovery was some $40 nnilllon
miles. and at this great distance II was
s-HgH OF in
telescope, which would imply that the
comet was a large one, though no tan
mad Vet developed-these appendices
developing through proximity to the
sun It then passed TO the otner sac
Of the sun and has not been Flslp4e
until now because Of day light
We are indebted to the kindly inter
est Of Prof. E. E. Barnard Of the Ierkes
observatory for the data presented
above regarding the Delavan comet
London, Sept. IA dispatch TO the
Reuter- Telegram company from SoIla
SAYS that a new comet has been Cd
served with the naked eye from the
observatory at Pleyna-
It was situated in the constellation
The Planets for October.
Mercury will be an evening star IN
Libra for q few days before and after
October IS, but is so far south OF the
equator at this time that unless one
has a particularly low clear western
horizon It will be difficult TO find II
It reaches its greatest elongatiOn east
Of the sun on this date-24 degrees 81
min Owing to the angle OF its path
the ecliptic, TO the horizon it will set
about an hour after the sun. At $50
Q. m on October 20 Mercury and the
moon viii be in conjunction. the for
mer being north Of the moon less than
two degrees.
Venus reaches its greatest brilliancy
on October % and throughout October
viii be a most beautiful and striking
object in the western evening sky. It
will then be at the crescent phase
which is easily distinguishabIe in a
low power telescope as are all its
phases. Venus attaIns its greatest
brilliancy at the crescent phase be-
cause it is then nearest to the earth.