COMET OF 1 889-1 896-1 903 283 



SO close together that the orbit of the latter was continually 

 subject to change and it was, therefore, necessary to compute 

 the perturbations of the comet by the planet for this interval. 

 For this purpose the ordinary method of the variation of con- 

 stants was used and in order to take account of the terms of 

 the second and higher orders the variable elements for each 

 date were used in the computations. The intervals of computa- 

 tion were as follows : from 1886 March 24.5 to 1885 December 

 14.5 ten days and from the latter date to 1883 February 8.5, 

 forty days. During this time Jupiter alone was considered and 

 all the computations were made with those elements which cor- 

 respond to V equal to zero. Of course the perturbations thus 

 obtained apply to the mean set of elements only ; but I have 

 applied them directly to the various sets of elements, as repre- 

 sented by different values of v, without regard to the changes 

 that might be introduced by separate computations. 



The integrated values of these perturbations for each date of 

 computation are given in the table on the following page. 



Applying these perturbations the resulting osculating and 

 definitive elements of the comet on February 8.5 1883 are as 

 follows : 



1886.0 



and the definitiv^e period of the comet is found to be 



29^.22 — 02.028 V 



Julian years, and the date of perihelion passage is, 



1886 July 24.06. 



