THE COMET.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8789, 17 April 1907, Page 3

THE COMET.

the information available in con- .' nection with Mr Grigg’s comet is . far from being satisfactory. The whole affair looks suspiciously like a f hoax. Ooelnm is an obscure constellation containing eight faint straggling stars, and is a most unlikely place for a comet to be roving about lu. Yet it is a pretty_ safe region for an astronomer to pick out as a scene for a bogus discovery. So 1 mg as no one knows where to search for the comet, no one can make bold to question the superior qualities of .! Mr Grigg’s telescope and eyesig.it. On the night of the 10th inst., we were told that the comet, whose position was then in Ooelnm, was t 'avelling in a northerly direction at the rate of six degrees and some odd minutes per day. This is equivalent to saying the comet was something of a “ scorcher,” and an observer would have to be quick in getting his telescope to work if he wanted to obtain a sight of it before it reached the other end of the sky. Ou the 15th inst., five days later, we Were told in a rather clumsy manner where the constellation Ooeltun is; but It doesn’t much matter now where Ooelnm may be, since the comet, according to its speed, should hive shifted out of that constellation long ago, and no clue remains for the detection of its whereabouts. I may ft Id that I spent two dreary nights trying to strike it. The sky was exceptionally clear. Coelum was carefully scrutinized, and also tno track along which the comet was supposed to travel, i The same stars, the same nebulae, crossed the field of the telescope over and over again. No comet could be seen anywhere. It would bo impossible to miss it. had its position corresponded approximately with that indicated by Mr Grigg on the 10th. Comet-hunting is a great hobby with a certain class of astronomers. 'When' they can’t discover any, they will make one for themselves, and swear by it. Only last month Professor Matteucci, of the Vesuvius Observatory, predicted that a certain comet was going to Csllide withTthe earth, cansing much dinger. The comet never turned up. Mr Grigg has quite as much right as Professor Matteucci to make a comet of his own. In fact, this is the fourth one he has discovered, or made, I should say. and I venture to predict he’ll make some more in the pokey corners of the sky during the nest two or three years, L. A. MACDONALD, P.B.A.S.