New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-06-27
(yet a Good Lens
And YouCanSee
Comet Tonight
This Pons-Winnecke CeIes.
tial Maverick Will Be
Playing Tag With the Sum
After You Have Dessert
You Don't Have To Duck
Whatever Meteors Hapgten
70 BE Shed VIII Not Be
of a Dangerous Variety

Shortly after dinner tonight the
Pons- Winnecke comet probably will be
in its closest proximity TO the sun, and
will begin receding, leaving a shower
Of meteors in it's wake. These motors
should be perfectly visible to the naked
eye during the whole evening, reaching
their most numerous and brilliant
phase between 10 p. m. and midnight.
The comet itself may be visible
throughout the evening to persons on
apartment house roofs or sitting on
stoops or standing on street corners.
provided they are equipped with small
telescopes or field glasses. 1t may take
more powerful lenses to make it dis
cernible, but it is certain that it can
not be seen with the naked eye.
To the lay person the comet is more
or less mysterious, because most
printed accounts of its visit have been
couched in technical language. DR.. E.
.. Fisher, of the American Museum of
Natural History, yesterday discoursed
at length in colloquial English regard
that the ordinary individual could OBJ
tain reasonable understanding of
what Pons- Winnecke is all about.
Of Mysterious Origin
81 am not professional astron-
omer," DR., Fisher said, "but astronomy
has always had fascination for me,
and l can understand the average
mans interest in it. The origin Of
comets is difficult to explain. Their
origin is doubtless the same as that of
nebular hypothesis. Out of this neb-
ulous substance which exists through
all space it is the conjecture that the
solar systems were formed.
Comets are of a gaseous, hazy or
misty formation. They are so rare
fed that stars plainly can be seen
through their tails. Although they
travel at a terrific rate of speed, they
are harmless to planets. Planets de-
fleet comets to send these celestial
travellers around some orbit or path in
which they are regular voyagers, so
long as some repelling force does not
put them off their course.
while planets travel in ellipses,
comets, because of DETECTION, might
travel in some other form of path.
But they are usually pretty regular,
and their appearances in this solar sys-
tenn can be computed with reasonable
accuracy.
"Meteors are believed by many
astronomers to be disintegrating
comets. There are some comets which
are believed to have been disintegrated
completely and to have disappeared.
Others have made regular appearances
throughout the years, the period of re-
appearance depending on the path they
are permitted to travel by denser astral
bodies.
"If a man were to travel around a
racetrack, at one point of which a hose
were being played, at regular inter-
walls he would pass through the stream
of the hose. There appear to be
stream of meteors at certain points on
the earth's orbit. We encounter these
each year about August 10 and Novem-
Der 10, and occasionally, as in this in
stance, at other periods.
Meteors Seen Frequently
"a few meteors can be seen almost
any night. By some they are called
shooting stars They live but for a
second or so in the atm osphere and
are burned or consumed. Other larger
ones sometimes fall on the earth. The
meteor is cold until it enters the
earth's atmosphere, when friction sets
it on fire. Falling to earth, they cool,
and are found to be Of mineral or rocky
substance.
eyes, there is possibility that some
rleteors may fall to earth during the
meteoric shower accompanying the
visit of Pons- Winnecke. The largest
meteor which ever fell to earth, so far
as is known, was found in the Arctic
Circle by the late Rear Admiral Peary
and brought to New York. We have it
at the Museum of Natural History. 1t
weighs 3612 tons. 1t is called Ahui-
ghito, meaning a tent.
"This Pons Winnecke comet made
its nearest approach to within 10000
900 or 100000 miles of the earth last
Tuesday. The idea that comet must
have tail is erroneous. Away out in
space comets have no tails Some
comets never develop tails. 1t is when
the comets approach the sun that they
have tails. The tails are not caused by
the passage of the comet through space,
for in outer space there is no friction.
"The tails of the comet stream out
behind them as they approach the sun,
and the tails are away from the sun,
showing the tails are caused by some
force within the sun, either electrical,
magnetical or something. No, I do not