SKJELLERUP COMET.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 17, 19 December 1927, Page 7

SKJELLERUP COMET.

UNUSUALLY BRILLIANT,

OBSERVATIONS IN AMERICA.

.Received December 19, 8.50 a.m. NEW YORK, Dec. 17. Reports from Flagstaff, Arizona and La Plata, Argentina, state that the Skjellerup comet is visible to the naked eye, but astronomers in New York and Washington failed to see.it. The United States’ naval observatory astronomer made a flight in an aeroplane to a height of 10,000 feet, but a very- high layer of haze prevented observation.

It is expected that it will be visible to the naked eye in every part of the Western Hemisphere within a day or two.

Doctor Sleiplier, director of the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, described the comet as follows: “It is unusually brilliant. It was brighter than Venus at the maximum brilliancy on Friday, even though the dazzling rays of sun extended over the region. This indicates that it was of a minus five magnitude.. At that time the length of tail visible to the naked eye was about half a degree or the diameter of a full moon.

“A spectroscope analysis of the comet’s light shows the latter to be practically all reflected sunlight. “Direct photographs of the comet show it to have a small nucleus, varying considerably in shape from an elongated to a circular form with nets directed toward the sun. Conspicuous envelopes were visible on the sunward side of the nucleus;” —A. and N.Z. cable. SIGHTED BY HANOVER LONDON, Dec. 18. The Hanover observatory sighted the Griggs-Skjellerup comet and believes that it will be visible after sundown during the next few days.—A. and N.Z. cable. Professor Burbidgo, president of the Auckland University, states that the indications are that" the comet recently reported in New Zealand is identical with what is known as the Grigg-Skjellerup comet, the honour of discovering which belongs to a New Zealander, Mr John Grigg, of Thames, who saw a faint comet on July 22, 1902. In May, 1922, Mr Skjellerup at the Cape of Good. Hope found the comet which was conjectured to be the Grigg comet. Calculations made by Mr G. G. Merton, utilising some photographic Observations made at Greenwich two and a half months after the discovery of 1902, made the identity of the comet almost certain. The comet has completed four revolutions in the interval, its period being five years less eleven days. These figures are based on an article by Doctor Crommelin in Hutchinson’s Splendour of the Heavens which concludes : “The comet should, bo seen again in 1927, about the same time as the Pons-Winnecke comet. Its period is the shortest of any known comet with the exception of Lucke’s.”