Observations of the appearance of the Comet. 309 



The following observations on the comet were made at - 

 Goltinsen, and published there on the 20th o\ September: 



" The comet which is now visible on tlie horizon in the 

 northern part of the heavens, is one of the niosi remark- 

 able which has ever been observed. None has ever been 

 so long visible, and, consequently, none has ever aflbrded 

 such certain means of information with respect to its orbit. 

 Accordingly, since the end of March last, when it was 

 first perceived by M. Flaugueroues in the soulh of France, 

 its course has been regularly traced ; nor shall we lose sight 

 of it till the month of January 1812. Its train, which oc- 

 cupies a space of 12 degrees, exhibits several curious phcenO' 

 Tnena. It is not immediately connected with the comet, as 

 if it were an emanation from it, but forms, at a distance 

 from the nucleus, a wide belt, the lower part of whi -h girds 

 without cominij in contact with it, much in the same 

 manner as the ring of Saturn ; and this belt extends itself in 

 t.vo long luminousyaice?, one of which is usually rectili- 

 neal, while the other, at about the third of its length, 

 shoots forth its ravs with a slight curve like the branch of 

 a palmtree ; nevertheless this configuration is subject to 

 change. It has been observed that the space between the 

 body of the comet and its train is occasionally filled, and of 

 the two fasces, that which is generally rectilineal sometimes 

 arches its ravs, while those of the other assume the form 

 of right lines. Finally, ravs, or, as it were, plumes of ig- 

 nited matter, have been seen to issue from the lower extre- 

 mities of they«,sce5 or flakes, and again unite. 



"Such fluctuations and accideius in that sort of lumi- 

 nous atmosphere which must occupy in the regions of space 

 a scope of about eigiit millions of leagues, are immense, 

 and niav well im[)ress the imaginatioii with astonishment. 

 The celebrated astronomer of Liiienthal, Mr. De Schrcetter, 

 remarked variations of the same kind in the tail of the last 

 comet of 1807, and inserted, in the work he published 

 with respect to it, plates of the successive configurations. 



" Frolessor Harding has also observed and delineated 

 with care the present comet under its various aspects, and 

 his desisrn will appear in one of the succeeding numbers of 

 the ' Geographical and Astronomical Correspondence,' 

 edited at the observatory of Goiha hy the chamberlain De 

 Lindcnau. 



*' Thev will show that when the comet first appeared, and 



was vet at a distance from the sun, the two flakes oF its 



tr%in were separated so as to form a right angle; but as 



U 3 that 



