THE NEW COMET

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 232, 20 December 1927, Page 20

THE NEW COMET

“NAMING PREMATURE/’ SAYS ASTRONOMER (Special to THE SUN.) WELLINGTON, Monday. According to Dr. C. E. Adams, iiovernraent Astronomer, the naming of the new comet “Skjellerup’s” appears to be a trifle premature and is likely to be very misleading. •Skjellerup certainly discovered the comet, said Dr. Adams, “but that was on December 3, whereas Mr. O’Connell, a New Zealand railway official at Taihape, first saw it on November 29. The comet will not be officially named until all reports have been received and checked and it is quite possible that someone, perhaps on a steamer, saw it even before Mr. O’Connell.” Dr. Adams added that South African and South American reports are not yet complete. The position is further < omplicated, he said, by the fact that Skjellerup was the discoverer of another comet, which was also known as Crigg’s comet, having been discovered by a resident of Thames, New Zealand, now deceased. That comet was finally known as the Origg-Skjellerup comet. It cannot be confused with the new comet, as it was always a “telescopic” one, invisible to the naked eye, and was never brighter than the ninth magnitude. It is now, moreover, far out in space on its orbit, rnere is no doubt, he adds, that the ♦ calle<J Skjellerup is the same as uiat seen in New Zealand recently.