HALLEY’S COMET.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9386, 4 March 1909, Page 2

HALLEY’S COMET.

Halley’s comet is shortly due, after an absence of 75 years. An advance gnard to welcome it on its return will be stationed at the Lick and the Yerkes telescope; then the owners of smaller telesoopes will get their opportunity, until finally by October, 1909, it will be possible for all to see the .comet with the unaided eye. It is impossible to say anything regarding the position of the comet in the sky as observable from the earth until certain computations have been made; A prize has been offered by the German Astronomical Society of 1000 marks for the most exact calculation, and when it is made we shall know exactly where to look lor the comet. As seen from the sun, its positon when nearest to that Inminary will be about four or five degrees from Theta, in the constellation of the Eagle, a distance equivalent to that separating the Pointers. As to the appearance of the comet on its return, it depends entirely open its position with regardfto the earth and sun. If the earth happens to be near the comet about the time of its passage round the sun, when the comet’s light is neoesasnly greatest and the train most extended, then we shall have a splendid _ view of the glorious spectacle. At its return in 1759 the comet had a tram fifty degrees in length; and was .best seen in the Southern Hemisphere. That is, the train of the comet extended to a distance equivalent to a little more than half the way from the zenith to the horizon. At its next return, in 1835, it was somewhat shorn of its splendor, for its train was but fifteen degrees in length. Even so, that means a length three times as great as that separating the Pointers, which form a very convenient scale for denoting distances of objects observed in the sky. How the comet will look on its next return it is impossible to conjecture, but it is to be hopedjthat it will treat us to a display worthy of its former reputation.