HALLEY'S COMET.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13741, 24 May 1910, Page 7

HALLEY'S COMET.

DISAPPEARING INTO SPACE

United Press Association— By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright." LONDON, iilay 22. Renter's New York correspondent •fates that Piofcssor Hale, of the Mount Wilson Observatory, saw Halley's "•comet, and that despite the moonlight, tho tail was quite distinct. It spread" f advise over,several degrees. Observa- - ti.„_ showed that the comet was disap- ... ■ .earing in the distanco. '' -.Received May 23rd, 11.15 p.m.) LONDON/ May 22. Halley's comet was observed at Cams bridge. The tail was four degrees long, and a second tail was.inclined to the first at an angle of forty degrees. OTTAWA, May 22. Professor- Birkland, who has been taking observations of tho comet at Finmark, Canada, suggests that the' t*»i? is principally composed of electric - rays. .Ths "comet was -fairly prominent in tho heavens last evening, but it is de- . ciacdly diminishing in brilliancy. A ; mo»t _r»mirk.iblet feature about it is tho speed with which it travels, its passage ' 'across the sky being so rapid that ono ran "almost sco it move. Tho comet - aiould be. a brilliant object early this . evfltun-r. as tho moon, when-it rises, Km bo partially eclipsed. TO TH_ EDITOR OF "TUB TRESS."' - ._* ! '- r i"~l should like to suggest that the tail of tho comet, as we see it; is <iu_ to refraotion of the sun's rays in passing through tho nucleus, the - nucleus acting as a kind cf gigantic •ens, and that the difference in shape w comets' tails is due to tho sun's rays Wng broken up differently in passing * through the nucleus of different romnts. Any areas of greater density in the. ether, "such as the actual tail of th;? comet, would naturally show, up wighter than other, parts.—Yours, etc., LESLIE" B. BURNETT. Rangiora.