A CELESTIAL TOURIST.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4658, 8 December 1883, Page 3

A CELESTIAL TOURIST.

,/Mr G. Bntteir'field, of Stanmorr, writeto the " Sydney Echo " as follows":— ; MrTebbutt deserves the thanks of tin community for so promptly coronaunicai ing the.very interesting information h< has received from the northern observatories, regarding the cc metfSnow rapidlj coming into View. From the elements oi M. Palisa which he gives, I have computed positions of the comet at successivf intervals of thirty days, from which, referred to the earth's places at corresponding dates, it is manifest that we, in thu Southern Hemisphere, shall not be able to seeit earlier than "February, during whicL month it will be a conspicuous object in our western evening sky. On the night of February 3, at which date it is also nearest to the sun, it will be about ninetj millions of miles distant from the earthas: neffr an approach as. the magniflcem comet of last year. "When we consider that it was visible on Sept. 3 last, at* distance of'236.millions of miles from thf sun, and a little less from the earth, and moreover, is approaching us at an accele* rating speed of over two millions 61 miles a day, we may expect a prodigious increase of apparent size and brilliance at this comparatively small distance. At this u»\c (Feb. 3), however, it will be above our hoiizon for a very short time, (about an hour) a^ter sunset, The interval betwrsn the setting of tie sun and "the setting of the comet wilt however, rapidly increase daily, as the comet crosses the plane of the earth's orbit on February 12, at a distance ol 'seventy-eight millions of miles from the sun, end ninety^five millions of miles from the earth, and fades from our view in the southern regions of space.