COMET OF 1889-1896-1903 237 



Second Appearance i8g6 to iSgj. 



14. The comet was discovered at its return by Javelle at 

 Nice on June 20, 1896, and was observed until February 25, 

 1897. The observations thus extended over a period of 250 

 days, during which time the comet passed over 100 degrees of 

 its orbit about the sun. During this second appearance the 

 comet was very faint and a most difficult object to observe. It 

 could be observed only with the larger telescopes, and is de- 

 scribed as being a round nebulous mass slightly less than one 

 minute in diameter. At first it had a central nucleus, which 

 appeared small and about the twelfth magnitude. This nucleus 

 afterwards disappeared and the comet appeared only a small 

 spot of haze or nebulosity. The companions were sought for, 

 but were not seen. 



In all somewhat over 100 separate and complete observa- 

 tions were made by 15 observers on 103 different days. It is 

 impossible to state the exact number of observations, as one ob- 

 server, Howe, at Denver, frequently made three or four separate 

 observations during one evening, using different comparison 

 stars for each observation ; on several occasions he used as 

 many as eight. If each and every one of such measurements 

 be called a separate observation, then Howe alone made more 

 than 1 03 observations, and the total number of observations 

 should be increased to over 200. In most cases it was found 

 convenient to take the mean of all such measurements made in 

 one night and to call such mean a single observation. 



15. The following table gives the necessary information in 

 regard to original observations ; the name of the observatory, 

 the character of the instrument used and the reference to the 

 journal where complete details can be found. 



