PROGRESS OF ASTRONOMY FOR 1891 AND 1892. 703 



Lick Observatory, wiiose observations extend IVitm April ."» to .lune 

 lo, saw, in addition to the eontinuous spectrum, the tliree usual com- 

 etary bands, the less refrangible sides of these bands being sliari)ly 

 defined and the middle one, iu fact, terminated by a very bright line. 

 The orbit of the comet is iind()id)t(Mlly (dliptic, belonging to the inter- 

 esting group of comets with a period of about two thousand years. 

 During this ap[)earance, as it was loi- aconsideral>le time in the neigh- 

 borhood of Jupiter, its path may l>e considerably changed. 



Comet 181(2 II : i Discoveied by Denning, at Bristol, ou March 18, 

 =Cnmet r 1892. } i8«)2^ j„ O'.V' right aseeusioD, and oJP north declina- 

 tion; it was then at its maximum brightness, small, round, with central 

 condensation of from ele\-enth to twelfth magnitu(b', and no tail. It 

 remained small and inconspicuous, but was under observation for sev- 

 eral months. The orbit is i)arabolic. without specially interesting pecu- 

 liarity. 



Comet 1892 I II : I I )iscovered by Mr. K. Holmes, at London, on Xovem- 

 =Conict / 1S9'J. ber 0, 1S1>2, near the great Andromeda nebula, and 

 =Hoh]ies's c omet. | .,1^,, independently on November 0, by I)avi<lson, 

 at ^lackay, Queensland — a round nebulous mass 5' in diameter with a 

 central condensation, but no tail: the suspicion that it was a return of 

 liiela's comet was shown to be unfounded as soon as sufficient obser- 

 vations were available for a determination of its oi'bit, though the orbit 

 proved to be elliptic and of short period. A shoi't faint tail was .seen 

 soon after discovery, and upon a photograph taken by Barnard, on 

 November 10, it can be followed for half a degree, while about a degree 

 from the head and beyond the tail there is a diffust'd lu'bulous object, 

 apparently belonging to the comet, and this connection seems sub- 

 stantiated by Cam[)beirs spectroscopic observations. 



The comet was visible to the naked eye to the end of November and 

 in telescopes of medium power during the first part of December, and 

 then dinunished very rapidly in brightness, not following at all the 

 (;omiiuted scale of brilliancy, but showing a remarkable and inex])lica- 

 ])le outburst about the l^Jtli of January, \S\)3. The spectium was also 

 l)eculiar in that it seemed to be purely continuous. 



According to the elements computed by Schulhof the comet i)assed 

 perihelion on June 13, LS92, a!ul its jx-riod is (5.0 years; the orbit seems 

 to lie entirely within that of Jupiter, the nearest jtossible ajjproach of 

 the two beingO.4, (the mean distance of the earth from the sun being 1,) 

 bnt since 1861 the two bodies do not .s<'em to have been very close at 

 any time. The small eccentricity, not far from that of Tempel's first 

 periodic comet, brings it quite near to the upper limits of the eccen- 

 tricity of the asteroid orbits. But with such a shoit i)eriod, as it can 

 not have experienced great perturbations since 1801, tiie reason for its 

 never having been seen at a previous return, is a mysteiy which seems to 

 be connected in some way with the very great and abnoimal variation 



