THE NEW COMET.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 April 1917, Page 3

THE NEW COMET.

Now Visible m Early Morning.

Wonderful Phenomenon at Hand.

In the eastsrn sky early cn Wednesday morning, says the Lyttelton Times, there was plainly visible to the naked eye, the new strange comet tint the astronomers have become so absorbingly interested in since it first floated into their lips of vision. The new comet is always well above the horizon. It has the intensity of a dear white star, with a long tail pointing almost directly to the zenith, with just the slightest inclination northwards. The tail does not appear to taper at all, a fact which signifies that the comet as it approaches the bud, will become a wonderful phenomenon, possibly outrivaling the great comet of 1910,

The new comet is regarded as a total stranger. Its periodicity ia not estabii-hed Bir.cc it has not so for been identified and nobody can say when it las* vieUed the sun. It ia suppoeed to have a pen d o ? anything up to tboncai.'d-! or years, and it ia hard to say what the appearance of it will ba as it nears the bod. It ia bound to be an object of aborting interest from now onwards.*. As it approaches the sen it will ba more clearly seen every morning. After it Las circled the emu it will ba visible to the evening sky.

Mr D. B. M'Luod, of Canterbury College, states the new comet, which is now known as the Wolf Comet, was dheovered on April 3, 1916. At the beginning of April, in this it was thirty-three times? brighter than when first discovered, and had increased |in brightness thre3 times from the beginning of February ro the end of March. On March 22 the comet rose in right ascension ldhr 57min 22sec, declination 2deg 40mm N. On March 30, its right ascension was 19br lGmin 24sec, ike declination being 3 deg 55uin N- The comet will lire about 3 am, to-day, being due east, well up in the sky about 5 a,m. The periodicity is unknown.