THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



JANUARY, 1883. 



THE GREAT COMET OF 1882. 



By Professor C. A. YOUNG. 



THE comet which is fading in the morning sky is one of the most 

 interesting that has ever appeared. Few, if any, have ever been 

 more brilliant, and though others have been larger, and have continued 

 visible for a longer time, none of them have presented more remark- 

 able phenomena. 



Of late we have been much favored in the matter of bright comets. 

 According to the list given by Humboldt in his " Cosmos," it appears 

 that the average interval between such apparitions for the last five 

 centuries has been something like eight years. During the last fifty 

 years the frequency has been about the same, conspicuous comets hav- 

 ing appeared in 1835, 1843, 1858, 1861, 1862, and 1874. But since the 

 beginning of 1880 we have already had five which were visible to the 

 naked eye, and three of them comets of the highest rank. The comet 

 of 1880 was indeed visible only in the southern hemisphere ; but we 

 all remember the fine comet which appeared in June, 1881, and was 

 not much, if at all, inferior to the present one. Schaberle's comet, 

 which followed in August, would have been regarded as very satisfac- 

 tory had its predecessor been less brilliant ; and Wells's comet of last 

 summer, though not well seen in the United States, was a very respecta- 

 ble comet in South Africa. 



It is not yet certain when or where the present comet was first seen, 

 but, so far as now appears, the priority belongs to Dr. Gould, or one of 

 his assistants, at the observatory of Cordoba in South America. In a 

 private letter to Mr. Chandler, of Cambridge, mainly occupied with 

 other matters, Dr. Gould, under date of September 15th, mentions 

 that a brilliant comet had been visible there near the celestial equator 

 for "more than a week" : he had already two observations, and was 



VOL. XXII. 19 



