8. 



ELEMENTS OF THE COMET OF FAYE. 



[From the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. VI. (1844).] 

 THE observations used were made with the Northumberland telescope 

 of the Cambridge Observatory ; and the deduced places are as follows : 



At first I computed the orbit by the method of Olbers, on the sup- 

 position of its being a parabola, but found that the middle observation was 

 so badly represented, that this hypothesis could not be correct. I then 

 proceeded to determine the elements without making any hypothesis as to 

 the conic section, and the resulting elements are as follows : 



Perihelion passage, 1843, October 26 d '33 Greenwich mean time. 



o / 



Longitude of Perihelion on the Orbit 54 27'8] From the equinox 



Longitude of ascending Node 207 38'0j of Dec. 5 



Inclination to the Ecliptic 10 48'9 



Perihelion Distance 1'687 



Semi-axis Major 3'444 



Eccentricity 0'5 10 



Periodic Time 6'39 Sidereal years. 



Motion direct. 



I would suggest that the comet may not have been moving long 

 in its present orbit, and that, as in the case of the comet of 1770, 

 we are indebted to the action of Jupiter for its present apparition. 

 In fact, supposing the above elements to be correct, the aphelion distance 

 is very nearly equal to the distance of Jupiter from the Sun : also the 

 time of the comet's being in aphelion was 1843'8 3'2 = 1840'6, at which 

 time its heliocentric longitude was 234 '5 nearly, and the longitude of Jupiter 

 was 231 '5 ; and, therefore, since the inclination to the plane of Jupiter's 

 orbit is also small, the comet must have been very near Jupiter when in 

 aphelion, and must have suffered very great perturbations, which may have 

 materially changed the nature of its orbit. 



