Notices respecting New Booh. 297 



phase. As the evening advanced, the exterior strata of the crescent 

 — the coma and the tail which were before obliterated by the twilight 

 — became visible. The tail, however, was never very apparent." 

 On the 30th, no observation was made at Feldhausen. On the 31st 

 the general appearance of the comet was not materially different, but 

 the crescent was less remarkable than on the 29th, and on the fol- 

 lowing evening still less so. After this the comet was not again seen 

 in the 20-foot reflector till its return from the sun after the peri- 

 helion passage. 



After the passage the comet was first seen at the Cape on the 

 25th of January, and from this time till the 5th of May it was very 

 frequently observed. On its reappearance it offered to the naked 

 eye " the aspect of a star, a very little dim and hazy, but no tail was 

 visible, neither was any seen in the night glass, in which its appear- 

 ance was that of a highly condensed globular nebula. In the equa- 

 torial it appeared as a bright, round, and very nearly uniform nebu- 

 lous disc, little condensed towards the centre, but decidedly more 

 sharply defined on the following than on the preceding side. . . . No 

 trace of a tail was observed in this instrument, but a considerable 

 coma enveloped the disc, extending to nearly an equal distance on 

 all sides." For some days trees prevented its being taken up by the 

 great reflector ; but from the time this instrument could be brought 

 to bear on it, the observations assume an extraordinary interest. 

 The following extract conveys a vivid impression of its general ap- 

 pearance : — 



" Viewed through the 20-foot reflector (which on this as on the 

 former occasion I had taken care to provide with a mirror freshly 

 polished and in the highest possible condition), the comet was now 

 indeed a most singular and remarkable object. Certainly nothing 

 could be more surprising than the total change which had taken place 

 in its appearance since the observations of October. Not to speak 

 of the extraordinary sharpness of termination of the head, especially 

 towards the following side, for which I can find no comparison so apt 

 as the ground glass of an Argand lamp, a new and perfectly unex- 

 pected phsenomenon had presented itself, a phaenomenon, I believe, 

 quite unique in the history of comets. Within the well-defined 

 head, and somewhat excentrically placed (being rather nearer to its 

 northern than to its southern edge), was seen a vividly luminous 

 nucleus, or rather an object which I know no better way to describe 

 than by calling it a miniature comet having a nucleus, head, and tail 

 of its own, perfectly distinct and considerably exceeding in intensity 

 of light, the nebulous disc or envelope which I have above called the 

 ' head.' As the comet gained altitude, a minute bright point like 

 a very small star, or rather like the nucleus of the nebula in Andro- 

 meda, only smaller, came to be distinctly perceived. It is this point 

 which I shall henceforward term the nucleus, and which, according 

 to the state of the atmosphere at the time of the observation (and 

 perhaps also that of the comet itself), was subsequently seen some- 

 times more, sometimes less sharply concentrated, and stellar — but 

 always of excessively minute dimension, certainly on no occasion 



Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 33. No. 222. Oct. 1848. X 



