HALLEY’S COMET

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 851, 11 June 1910, Page 3

HALLEY’S COMET

Mr Fred. R. Field, of Aramoho, Wanganui, writes us as follows with reference to the above ;

• ‘ My attention has been drawn to your issue of the 25th ultimo (which appeared during my absence from the district), wherein it is stated that Mr Ward, the Director of the Wanganui observatory, considered I had ‘ ‘ confused the time of the transit of the nucleus over the sun’s disc with that of the entry of the earth into its tail, as given by the Berlin astronomers.” It may be that error crept into the cable message, but the wording of it, as it appeared, could leave no doubt as to the correct interpretation of it. Astronomers had, strange to say, predicted that the tail would pass us on the evening of the 19th, but none, so far as I know, made the palpably absurd assertion that it would take one hour only in passing us. Through your columns, I ventured to predict that we should not enter the densest portion of the tail till the 21 st. That this prediction was fairly near the mark was proved by the fact that the tail still shone brightly in the eastern sky before sunrise of the mornings of the 20th and 21.st, and faintly on the morning of the 22nd. Unfortunately, I had not taken observations with sufficient accuracy to check the time of the expected transit. But these observations, together with subsequent ones, convince me that there was no transit at all on the 19th of May ; that the comet, influenced probably by neighbouring planets, reached its node earlier than was expected, and that some time on the 19th the nucleus passed clear of the sun, to the south of it. Ido think, however, that we passed through the outskirts of its tail, and that this occurrence was responsible, to some extent at least, for the stormy and mild weather that prevailed afterwards. It will be interesting to learn whether the same winds were fairly general throughout the world. The peculiar appearance of the sun, as noticed by residents of Canterbury, just after its rising on the 19th, was probably due to some extraordinary local refraction. Such illusions, at rising and setting of the sun and moon, are not uncommon. For instance, I, and others, have seen the lull moon rise and appear to stand for a few seconds upon the horizon, like a huge copper mushroom.”

Aramoho, June Sth, 1910.