A STRANGE COMET.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14010, 15 September 1909, Page 2

A STRANGE COMET.

'STAR" OF WM. THE CONQUEROR HALLEY DISCOVERED. B) 'Electric i !Wegrtoh.-Copyrii|(|. . (Received Sept. 16, 8.30 a,m7) ; LONDON, Sept. 14. " Professor Wolfe, of the Konigstubi •' Observatory, Heidelberg, announces that Halley's comet was discovered there early on Sunday morning; moreover the comet was. detected faintly on a photographic plate. At Greenwich it will be visible to the telescope afc the end of January next. ' It will also be visible as morning, star to the naked eye towards the end of April and Waff ■■ evening star a month later, when very hear the earth. [Halley's comet was due next' year, and astronomers were said to have been, looking eagerly for a.sign of it* coming. Professor J. H. Elgie recently remarked at Christchorch that the visitor. ' waa a little late on this journey ana! that it wm unlikely to be sighted before the end of the year. 'T-Jui theft* . comets are so easily led, astray,'* it» added. Jupiter pulled one into two pieces, both of which were lost, and Halley's comet lnay have been deflected from its accustomed path by some planetary influence. The visitor now expected has been journeying with reasonable regularity round the. sun for ages. Chinese records mention its appearance as fe* back^as 240 BjC. Jt.wap this comet that' figured in' history.' afc the "star" of William the Conqueror,, and it is actually represented; w.th* Bayeaux tapestry. A number of men: are stitched with fingers pointed and eyes raised to the .sky, when thers>*iso an appaiitidtt "like a starfish with i*J triangnlar ribed petticoat to it, ending: in eight .flames or tongues." ' Halter ' was a friend of Newton, whose "Prkfcr . cipia" was "published at his expense, that Royal Society having no funds 'tivsjlrr able for the purpose. He showed. that >. comets moved regularly round the son in obedience to the law of gravitation, ' and worked out the elements of -the orbit of the comet of 1682. This cdme%w now known by bis name, was shown • to move in an ellipse, having a period' ', of seventy-fire or seventy-six yean. 'Ha- ■ ' | returri was predicted for 1758, but HaTley had neglected some small factors in his calculations, and' the Visitor did not appear until early in 1759. It was seen again in 1836 r and should be seen, by the astronomers, at any rate, in the spring of 1910. Professor Elgie sug- , ge* ted that when it does appear {t rw not be a very inposing object, and »s it has been hraying the buffetings of i space for some thousands of years must be rather worn. Still it l» in many respects the most interesting of ; the periodic comets, and we shall aU be> ' glad to learn that it is still strong and healtiiy.] - - , , „ .. I * *