THE DAYLIGHT COMET.

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 51 (Supplement)

THE DAYLIGHT COMET.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 28. The new daylight comet, which was first seen at Johannesburg last week, has been visible during the last few days in England. Seen through field-glasses, the comet is a very beautiful object. The tail, which points away upwards, is bisected, and looks like the gorgeous tail of a bird of paradise. There was great excitement at the Cambridge Observatory, where Sir Eobert Ball, the famous astronomer, was a spectator. Sir Robert said it was both superb and wonderful. Speaking to a student at his side, he said : " This tail, which to us appears only a few feet long, extends in reality for several millions of miles through space. And the wonder of it all is that in a few days more the comet will go back to infinity, never to appear again. We do not know whence it comes and whither it is going.

Its tail is slightly turned towards Venus, and this is a sign of similarity with Donati's Comet, which apDearcd in 1858. As regards its size, I should say it is less thin that of our own planet. We have also come to the conclusion that it reaches us from the northern sky, and at the present moment is travelling again northwards and away from the sun." Sir Robert's deductions are based on the calculations which his staff made on Friday, and, after working the whole night, has just completed. They show that the nearest approach of the comet to the sun, or its perihelion, was about one-tenth of the mean distance from the earth to the sun, or nine million miles. This is considered as extraordinarily near and may be the reason of the remarkable development of the tail, which is visible by daylight. If the weather be clear the comet will be still visible in this country during the whole of the coming week, and probably longer in the southwestern sky between 5 and 6 o'clock. It will, however, diminish in brightness, as it gradually recedes from the sun.