COMET SEEN IN NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25364, 11 December 1947, Page 6

COMET SEEN IN NEW ZEALAND

“ENTIRELY NEW AND UNEXPECTED” >

HARVARD COMMENT ON OBSERVATION The comet which has been seen in the western sky from parts of Canterbury and the West Coast duringjthe last few evenings has been observed in mid-Tasman by H.M.N.Z.S. Arbutus, and the bearings and altitude have been sent to the director of the Carter Observatory, Wellington (Mr I. L. Thomsen). The comet was seen from the Arbutus on Tuesday evening at 9.45 o’clock when the ship’s position was latitude 36.57 south and 162 east. The exact position of the comet was given then as follows:—right ascension, 18 hours 28 minutes; declination, 35 degrees 16 minutes south.

In a telephone interview with “The Press” last evening, Mr Thomsen said the comet was definitely not Encke’s Comet nor Comet Honda, the orie seen from Japan. The Comet Bester, discovered some time ago, was in the sky at present. He had been in touch with Harvard University yesterday, and the director (Dr. Cunningham) had told him the comet was an entirely new and unexpected one. The comet was approaching the sun and would probably be visible for only a few days. It might be visible again in the morning sky about a month after its disappearance, he said. According to reports he had received the comet was very bright with a long incandescent tail, and was near the planet Venus. It, was probable that Harvard would soon be able to give the correct information about the comet if observations from Australia and South Africa were quickly correlated. Because of cloud, the comet had not yet been seen in Wellington, but reports from Jackson’s Bay and Kawakawa, North Auckland, had come to hand. The comet could be seen from Christchurch until about 10-30 o’clock last evening, when low cloud gathered in the south-west. The bearing, recorded by the Weather Office. Wigram, last evening at 9.30 o’clock was 216.9 degrees, just south of south-west, and the elevation was 7.1 degrees. The length of the tail was about 0.6 degrees.