HALLEY'S COMET

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 613, 16 September 1909, Page 7

HALLEY'S COMET

; . ——o: ; •SEEN IN EUROPE. •' (Bj TcleeraD&.-l'roas Associatlnn.-OotiyriiihU .■ London, September 14. Professor Wolf, of Koenigstulo Observa tory, Heidelberg,. announces that Bfalloy': comet was disooyered there early on Sunda; "morning, ' The comet,' was. also ■ detectec faintly on a photographic plate at Greenwich ' Hie comet will be visible with a telescopi at .the end of January next, visible as i morning star to the naked eye towards tin end of April, and as an evening star a montl later,' when it will be very near the earth.'' THE COMET'S HISTORY. : LAST SEEN 74. TEARS AGO. ' London advices 0f... July, dates",state:— I Tho as trahomical, world is , erigeMy awaitingth( appearance, of. an , historic', come 1 , which i: now approaching- tho earth at a rate ol 2,000,000 miles' a'day. This is equivalent t< 1731 miles. a minute and. 29 miles a second Since 1705 the comet has been lenown as "Hal ley's Cornet," as it was in that year that Ed mund. Halley, an eminent, English astronomer established'the identity, of the comet whicl had appeared in 1531, 1607, and 1682, and h( predicted-its reappearance in-1758;- It was lasl viable-in'lß3s; It. is' not probable that the comet;-will be. discerned before the : middle ol September or possibly October, for its distant* is'-now; 420,000,000 miles. • The rate .-at which-,-ii is • travelling sunwards; and earthwards, however, will.toon 1 bring it;'within reach:.of human eyfe.: All .the most powerful telescopes in th< world aro occupied.in searching for tho.illustrioijs comet; which I :shone so brightly in-thc spring of - 10GG, and was supposed to presagf the Normnn' invasion. The redetection of the object ,is likely, to bo brought about by-photo graphy, , which is capable of: revealing t fainter image • than can bo discerned by the em Ther wmet. will be at jits brightest in Moy, 1910,. when- it- should' 80, quite conspicu-ous-to, tho. naked cyp, ,and';becomb a populai and highly attractive' spectacle.