HALLEY’S COMET.

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 February 1910, Page 1

HALLEY’S COMET.

• ***> SLLN AT THK TIIAMKS. fI!V TKI.EOKAI’H—PER CHESS ASSOCIATION.] j TH AMI'S, February 4, I Halley s emnet was located mi Wednesday hy Mr, John Crigg. of thej Thames Observatory. To-night thej discovery was confirmed. The local tmt ! / tlie comet is in the direction of the planet Saturn. Wll FN SLLN IN NLW ZLA LAM'. ; SoML INTLHLSTINC TACTS. Hadley's comet will reach its perihelion. as far as New Zealanders arc concerned, mi April 17th in the present j| year, about midday, unless all cal j dilations should need much more revision than is expected. The probability is that up |ii the time when j the comet readies perihelion, n will mu he very conspicuous ; hut after j passing that, point, and in the part of | its mini corresponding to its great ap- i poarance in 145 b, when its tail extend- | cd half-way across the sky, we may] see it ;it its best. Before April 17th there are no very conspicuous stars which might act as guides to the place]: m the comet, but from the 3rd lo the j 127t1i February' it may be visible i among the stars of the constellation) 1 deludes, tin the 7th lo the Lit h it will i be situated near to a very small star, Helia i’isciii in, and on the loth, about l 10 p.m., it will be smne five degrees smith of the muon. Hunng the whole j of .March it is only above the hmi/oii during daylight ; but on April 4th, in i the early morning before sunrise, it 1 will be close to the 4th magnitude star i •mega I’lscunn. Thus the comet j may be looked for in the evenings from | the beginning of February t«> the end i of that month, in the western skies:) and in the eastern morning heavens j from the beginning of April until the, middle !.f .May. After May 20th oi I thereabouts, it will again he found in the western evening skies; but hy that j time it will probably be so conspicuous that n<> guide to its position will he needed. ‘ The com sc which the comet will i pursue tin-, ugh the signs . i the Zodiac will be as follows:- At the beginning of Kehruary it will be found about the thirteenth degrt f the sign Aries, whence it moves backwards, or retrograde, to 'he 25th degree of the sign I Msecs, mi April 24th. Its apparent motion then again becomes progressive, so that by .May 6th it is again about the first degree of Aries. Its motion then becomes exceedingly rapid; so that during May it passes through the signs Aries, ’Taurus, tiemini. Cancer, and Leo. From February Ist until May Ist its declination northwaid from the ecliptic varies but little. remaining from seven to eight, degrees north: hut from that until the middle of May it changes, moving down to sixteen degrees north of • >iir celestial epilator. Thus its greatest altitude will not exceed 46 degrees, and it mav decline to 37 degrees in the mendi.an ; and the emnet remains all the time staled in the northern hemisphere of the heavens, sotting mu i|| and west and rising north and east.