IN THE DAYS OF THE COMET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9706, 31 January 1910, Page 7

IN THE DAYS OF THE COMET.

WHEN AND WHERE HALLEYS' WILL BE SEEN. TALES ABOUT ITS TAIL. An interesting account of Halley's comet and its present visit to the neighbourhood of the earth was given by Professor Fowler, > of the Royal College of Science, at the conversazione of the Students' Union in London last month.

Comets, he said, were in reality quite common objects, and no fewer than 150 had been discovered duriDg the last thirty years, though most of these, of course, were only visible through powerful telescopes The appearance of a brilliant comet was an event of comparatively rare occurrence. The last was the Great' Comet of 1882. its whole bulk was 8,000 times that of the sun, but its mass, like that of other comets was too small to be measured by any means known to us. It was often said that a big comet of this kind, could, if properly packed, go into a hat-box, but that statement must not be taken too literally, because it might very well weigh several millions of tons, and yet be small in comparison with the larsre heavenly bodies. When Halley's comet last appeared in 1835 it was visible to the naked eye for several weeks bafore its peiihelion, and had a tail about thirty degrees in length, but it was no use trying to disguise the fact that after the perihelion it was a disappointing object because it had r\-> tail.

The comet, naturally enough, as Halley, who identified it, was As-tronomer-Royal, had come to be regarded almost as British territory and everyone was delighted to find that the calculations made at Greenwich as to its present appearance had proved to be correct. There had been great competition amongst astronomers throughout the world to be the first to pick it out. i Actually the first announcement of the comet's appearance was made by Wolf of Heidelberg, a photograph showing it having been taken on September 11th last. But when the Greenwich plates were re-examined by the lieht of the information given ! by Wolf it was found that the comet had been photographed two days before that. Recently, however, it was announced that the English astronomer in charge of the observatory at Heluan, in Egypt, had photographed the comet as far back as August 24th, so that the credit of the discovery really belonged to England after all. Since then the comet has approached much nearer the earth, and is now visible through quite small telescopes. It has no tail yet, but that is due to the fact ( that the tail is pointed away from the earth. IN THE SUN'S RAYS. At the beginning of March next, said the professor, the comet would sec three hours after the sun, and might not then be bright enough to attract general attention. After that it would be lost in the sun's rays until near the end of April, and those who wished to see it would have to be up before sunrise. On May 19th, at 2 o'clock in the morning, the comet will pass in front of the sun's »disc, but this transit will not, ot course, be vis ible in England. After that it will be seen at its best towards the end of May, but no one could tell whether the comet would be conspicuously brilliant or not. Supposing its tail was not less than fifteen millions of miles in length, the earth would pass through it. We had already heard alarming rumours of what might happen—that we should all be poisoned by various gasses—but the extreme tenuity A the gasses comprising the tail should ; be sufficient to allay any fears of that kind. At any rate, any astronomer would willingly take the risk of passing through a comet's tail in order to see what would happen. In his opinion, the most we might expect would be a showsr of shooting stars, or, as. he believed most probable, a display of the Aurora.