THE GREAT SOUTHERN COMET.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3173, 30 August 1881, Page 4

THE GREAT SOUTHERN COMET.

We quote from an English paper the following respecting the cornet lately seen in our aky, and first observed hero by Captain JTarquhar, of the Hotornalmna :--One of the most interesting of all celestial objects—a brilliant comet —made its appearance above OUr horizon on June 23. The sidereal visitant in question has been attracting the attention and exciting the interest of astronomers for some time past, having been observed more than a month ago at the Citpe of Good Hope and in South America, whence, pursuing a northerly course, it has giadually risen to a point at -which it is Tisible in these latitudes. A fortnight ago, on June 9, the Emperor of Brazil telegraphed to the Institute of France, of which His Majesty is a member, the result of the observations made at Rio de Janeiro observatory. The Emperor communicated, in round numbers, the elements of the comet's orbit —which, as is well known, is, in the case of these wanderers, a matter of far greater eccentricity than with a new planet, moving in a fairly regular eclipse. Mich, however, is the precision of astronomical calculations that the approximate figures supplied by the Brazilian monarch enabled Mr J. ••-. Hind, the English astronomer, to forecast within almost an hour the time at which the comet might be looked for above our own horizon. Writing on June 21, Mr •md said : —" he greut southern comet iray be first ?een in the constellation Aurjjin.. probahly in strong twilight, to-morrow Wednesday) morning ; but, if there is not material error in the elements us tiiey have Tv-ached Furope, certainly on the f llowing morning." In fulfilment of this prediction the comet did rise into view about midnight, a little before or after, according to the observer's station, on June 23. Mr Hind computed that the luminosity of the comet was five times as great a3 it was when it first appeared in the fjoutb American and South African skies, but this intensity of light gradually declined, until on June 27 the comet was hardly visible. The present comet is not identified with any of the known oomets, whose orbits have been calculated o,nd whose return may be foretold ; but the known comets bear but a small proportion te those whose movements are still untraceable.