HALLEY'S COMET.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12771, 18 April 1910, Page 3

HALLE Y'S COMET.

[PbESS AsSO'CIXtION^^COPTBIjaHT.]' " (Received April 17/ f) "p r ! .rh,)7 7 • •7 Capetown/ April. 16., . Halley's: comet) is visible fe the. naked eye -at OapetownX •'' ' .f. Wellington, Aprifl7. Dr Kennedy, the rector of St Patrick's College,' reports observing Halley's comet with the naked eye this morning. Recent English papers record the well-earned honours gained by Messrs Cowell and Crommelm, of Greenwich Obesrvatory, in connecetion with their calculation of the perturbations in the orbit of , Halley's comet, and their forecast of the particular point in the heavens at -which it was to be sought at any given hour. The task involved the tracing of its normal path through the solar system from: the pear 1835 to the present time, and calculating the various accelerating, retarding, and diverting influences or each individual planet t during the . whole of that period.! The work was stupendous, I and necessitated the devising of special methods lof cohiputation . These two observers -have gained the prize offer(ed in' Germany, ifor the most accurate i result-— how accurate is evidenced by tlie fact that.wihen the comet was first seen- teJeiseopically on llth September'last it was within seven minutes of arc of the point indicated — less' than, pne-fourth the moon's apparent diameter. This is one of the finest' fettts on record in th^'abstruse field of astronomical mathematics, and the degrees of Doctor bf v - Science awarded by the University of Oxford ha-ve been<fairly<'eatned'. , • .7 !• K