APPROACHING COMET

Hokitika Guardian, 4 March 1927, Page 4

APPROACHING COMET

PONS W INN PC K E. I \( | < ABOUT Till'] VISITOR. A i•: 1 1 1 1 o from Alclbourne oil February 18ili. Mas as follows:—“For the purpose of observing the comet Pons AA inneeke. visible in Australia in Juno, July and August, the big telescope at the .Melbourne Observatory, v. mch has not Uvea used for 0,1-1;, years, is bo input int i commission again. 1 lie instrument is 1 (it! toet long, and the movable section weighs 0 tons. It is the second largest in the southern hemisphere."

Stoma interest in- facts concerning the comet were learned recently in an interview v« ith the Rev. 15. Dudley. of Lvlt.elton, who is a been student of the ways of heavenly bodies, and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Societ v.

“The. comet ought to he visible in New Zealand as well as in Australia." said Air Dudley, “hut whether it will he possible to pick up by the naked eye will depend a. great, deal on the it ions ruling at the time of the visit. Pons Winner].-- i- 1 of exceptional brilliance, and for ibis reason it i< not likolv to create a large amount of public interest. It is, however. of exceptional interest to spec-

ialists, as it is among ib- more recently discovered comets, and considerable pains are being taken to bind out more about it. At the time Pons Win neck e is visible observers should be careful to distinguish between it and two other cornels visib'e during its vis-it. These are Fie : om-gs P and Witmoeke,

which are named after- two Gorman a:-:-Iron.-mors who di-ouv red them. Pons \\ in make is so called because Poms and A\ inn.ecke worked conjointly in its discovery and in the determination of its orbit and its movements. "Pons Winnecke” went on the speaker, “trill be nearest the sun on Tune -2-2: i, when it \-. ii 1 he right asfelision zero hours -lOmiii. declination, ■57 degrees north. Its approach to the earili this year will he closer b.v some <00,00,1 miles than in 1021, when it excited considerable interest among scientists.

“It. is now well-known that the majority of comets belong to the solar system and are related to the major planets as well as to the sun. and that they commonly leave behind them a trail ol meteors. It has been found that, meteors travel in shoals around the sun in predieahlo orbits and that these are intimately associated with the orbits of comets. Pons Winnecke is not an exception fo this.”