152 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1887 AND 1888. 



ditiou to the tliree characteristic liydroj^en bands. The orbit, accord- 

 ing to Berberich, is nndonbtedly elliptic, the period, from his preliminary 

 compntation, being 2,370 years. 



-Comet h 188H* FJi'st observed at this return by Tebbutt, at Wind- 



= Encke's comet, sor, New South Wales, on July 8. (See comet Eucke.) 



Comet 1888 III 

 =Comet c 1888. 



Discovered by W. II. Brooks, at the new Smith Ob- 

 servatory, Geneva, New York, about 8:45 p. m., Au- 

 gust?, J888— right ascension 10'>5'", de(^Iina,tion +44O.30'. The head was 

 round, one- half minute in diameter; the nucleus was of the ninth to 

 tenth miignitude, and there was a little tail 5' long in i)osition angle 

 27()o. Perihelion had been passed on Jtdy 31 ; the last observation re- 

 ported was on October 10. 



=Comct d 1888 ' Found by Perrotin, at Nice, August 9, 1888. (See 

 =Fave'scomet. Comet Faye.) 



Comet 1889 I : 



—Comet e 1888 



Comet 1888 V : Discovered by Mr. E. E. Barnard, at the Lick Ob- 



=Comet / 1888. servatory, on October 30; a faint suspicious object, 

 the head well developed, witli ill-defined nucleus, and a short tail. Peri- 

 helion had taken place some forty-eight days before discoverj'^, but the 

 increasing distance from the sun was largely compensated for by the 

 approach to the earth, so that the comet was observed for several 

 months in 1889. 



This comet was discovered by Barnard at the Lick 

 Observatory, with a 4 inch coinet-seeker, on Septem- 

 ber 2, ISiiS, or the morning of September 3, and also independently by 

 Brooks, at Geneva, on the following morning. It was a round nebulous 

 mass 1', in diameter, with a central condensation of 11-12 magnitude 

 and no tail. At the end of November it reached its maximum bright- 

 ness, twelve times as bright as at discovery, and ai)[)eared to the naked 

 eye like a nebulous star of the sixth magnitude. It will not pass peri- 

 helion till January 31, 1889. 



The spectrum, according to Dr. Copeland, on November 14, instead 

 of being composed of the usual feeble separate bauds, was continuous, 

 rather long, extending from wave-lengths 575 to 450 of Angstrom's scale, 

 brighter in the middle and fading gradually at both ends ; it resembled 

 the spectrum of a close globular star cluster or of a non-gaseous nebula, 

 rather than that of a self luminous gas. Faint patches of light were 

 made out in the jiositious usually occupied by the second and third 

 cometary bands. Similar observations were made later, and on Decem- 

 ber 8, all three bands were distinctly visible, but on each occasion the 

 continuous s[)ectrum formed the ground on which the brighter spectrum 

 was superposed. "It seems probable that the comet shines mainly by 

 reflected light, - - - to whi(;h the action of the sun on the cometary 

 material is slowly adding the usual bright bauds." 



