Halley in a rosy light

Press, 27 March 1986, Page 14

Halley in a rosy light

By

HANS PETROVIC

This year’s reappearance of Halley’s Comet has been hailed as one of the great astronomic spectaculars of this century. How many people, however, have actually managed to catch even a faint glimpse of it yet? For those who have missed out so far, here is what Charles Fort, that indefatigable compiler of unusual data, had to say in “The Book of the Damned,” which was published in 1919, about the close encounter of 1910:

“As to Halley’s Comet, of 1910 — everybody now swears he saw it. He has to perjure himself: otherwise, he’d be accused of having no interest in great, inspiring things that he’s never given any attention to. “Regard this: “If a comet have not the orbit that astronomers have t predicted— perturbed. If, liM|r Hal-

ley’s Comet, it be late — even a year late — perturbed ... “Suppose the comet called Halley’s had not appeared ... “Early in 1910, a far more important comet than the anaemic luminosity said to be Halley’s appeared. It was so brilliant it was visible in daylight. The astronomers would have been saved any way (in their predictions). “If you predict there’ll be a special kind of a pebble on the beach, I don’t see how you can disgrace yourself, if some other pebble will do just as well — because the feeble thing said to have been seen in 1910 was no more in accord with the sensational descriptions given out by astronomers in advance tb*p is

a pale pebble with a brick-red boulder ...

“I remember the terrifying predictions made by the honest and credulous astronomers, who must have been themselves hypnotised, or they could not have hypnotised the rest of us, in 1909. “Wills were made. Human life might be swept from this planet ... The less excitable of us did expect at least some pretty good fireworks. “I have to admit that it is said, in New York, that a light was seen in the sky. “It was about as terrifying as the scratch of a match on the seat of some breeches half a mile away. “It was not on time.

“Though I have heard that a faint nebulosity, which I did not see, though I looked when I was told to look, was seen in the sky, it appeared several days after the time predicted.

"A hypnotised host of imbeciles: told to look up at the sky, we did.

“The effect: almost everybody now swears that he saw Halley’s Comet, and that it was a glorious spectacle,” Fort said.

There is little doubt that scientists have become more accurate in predicting the precise times of appearance of Halley’s Comet. It will be interesting, however, to ascertain how many people who are now searching the morning sky for a small speck, will speak in glowing terms, in 10 years’ time, of the spectacular visit of Halley’s Comet in March, 1986.