10 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



ASTRONOMY. 



The most startling astronomical event of the last twelve 

 months is undoubtedly the sudden appearance of the splendid 

 comet which, for want of a better name, we will continue to 

 call 1910A. It was first seen, as far as is known, by some 

 workmen employed at the Premier Diamond Mine in South 

 Africa and had eluded observation until it had become a 

 conspicuous object in the heavens. Soon after the end of 

 January it ceased to be visible to the naked eye. I first 

 saw it shortly after sunset on January 22nd. The nucleus was 

 then bright, but not so much so as the brighter stars, and 

 there was a short tail. The clouds prevented it from being 

 seen regularly, but on January 29th, about 6.30 p.m., the 

 nucleus was quite inconspicuous, but there was a magnificent 

 tail reaching upwards in the form of a slightly-curved spray 

 to a distance of about 45 degrees. At half its length from 

 the nucleus this tail was of about the same brightness as the 

 Milky Way. In contradistinction to this, Halley's Comet, 

 a well-known visitor of 74| years period, possibly remembered 

 by some of our oldest members, has been before the public for 

 months, and the first naked-eye observation reported in Dorset 

 was from Lyme Regis on April 25th, about 4 a.m. After 

 May 20th the comet should be visible in the evening. Its 

 appearances have been traced (so it is supposed) for a very 

 long way back, including one at the Norman Conquest, 

 and probably some of the numerous comets figured in the 

 Nuremburg Chronicle of 1493, which I showed at our last 

 meeting, represent it. Several bright meteors have been 

 recorded, but nothing to compare with that of February 22nd, 

 1909, in which the train lasted for nearly two hours, which 

 I described in my address last year. One was seen in France 

 on April 20th, 1909, one in daylight on October 6th, 1909, 

 with Leo as a radiant point, one on February 17th last with a 

 train visible for seven minutes, and one on February 27th. 

 The only evidence of the November meteors seen by Mrs. 

 Richardson and myself last year was one very bright one in 



