NAMING NEW COMET

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 112, 5 February 1941, Page 8

NAMING NEW COMET

Task For Astronomical Society Of Pacific OUTLINE OF PROCEDURE The name of Mr. R. A. Mclntosh, an amateur astronomer of Auckland, will be sent overseas as the New Zealand discoverer of the new comet, said Mr. M. Geddes, director ot the Carter Observatory, Wellington, the national astronomical observatory, in a statement yesterday. Reports made by observers throughout Ihe country had now been investigated, Mr. Geddes said, and these made it clear that Mr. Mclntosh, who saw it about 2.30 a.m. on January 25, was the first. The next two were: Mr. R. B. Newport, Nelson, who saw it at 11.35 p.m. on January 25, and Mr. K. D. Adams, Dunedin, who saw it at 11.55 p.m. the same day. In the next four hours the names of six independent discoverers in other parts of the Dominion had been established and there were a considerable number more the following night. Mr. Geddes said no official advice had yet been received from overseas reporting the discovery of the comet, but Press reports established that a Melbourne amateur astronomer, Mr. J. F. Skjellerup, had located it four days before Mr. Mclntosh, the first New Zealander. Establishing Priorities. The name of this comet would probably be determined by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco. That society bad a comet committee which made awards of comet medals to discoverers. The practice was to wait till all observations were received, usually some months, and name the comet after the first person to discover it, or if there were a number close together, after the first three. Mr. Geddes said the comet was probably seen also iu South America South Africa, as well as in New Zealand aud Australia, but no advice had been received from these places yet. Under war conditions it would be some months before ail the information had been received to enable priorities to be established. Actually there was no barm in the comet being called any name in New Zealand at present, and officially it would be known as “Comet 1941 A” in the meantime.

Mr. Geddes explained that the comet information service had been seriously interrupted by the war. The International Astronomical Union had had a comet bureau in Copenhagen with branches in all parts of the world, including one in Melbourne for the Pacific. Previously by cabling Melbourne it ’ had been possible to have comet information round the world in 24 hours. The occupation of Denmark, however, had ended that service. In this case, Mr. Geddes said, Melbourne had been advised by cable that both comets were visible. The Carter Observatory’s chief concern, however, had been to advise amateur astronomers in New Zealand so that ample observations could be made. . Some 40 of them had been iu touch with the observatory.

Moving At Fast Rate.

The new comet was still moving at a tremendous rate and was well within 20,000,000 miles of the earth and probablv as doss as 10,000,000 and coming‘closer. That was very close for a comet, and indicated that it was not really a very large comet. On four nights last week both comets had been photographed through the nineinch telescope.