9. 



THE ORBIT OF THE NEW COMET. 



[From the Times, October 15, 1844.] 



HAVING obtained some results of an interesting nature respecting the 

 new comet, I am induced to communicate them to the world through the 

 medium of your widely-spread journal. My first investigations were founded 

 on three observations made by Prof. Challis with the Northumberland 

 equatorial on the 15th, 20th and 25th of September, and the orbit found 

 from them appeared to be an ellipse of moderate eccentricity and short 

 period. To test the accuracy of this result, Prof. Challis kindly favoured 

 me with some more recent observations, which were made on the meridian, 

 and therefore entitled to more confidence. Availing myself of the extension 

 thus given to the arc described by the comet, I have re-calculated the 

 orbit from the observations on the 1 5th and 25th of September and the 

 5th of October. The following are the results which I have obtained : 



Perihelion passage, Sept. 2 '41 59 mean time at Greenwich. 



o / // 



Longitude of perihelion of the orbit... 342 28 25] From the mean equinox 



Longitude of ascending node 63 47 7J of Sept. 25 



Inclination to the Ecliptic 2 56 13 



Log. (^ axis major) 0'500660 



Eccentricity =sin 3840'22" 



Longitude perihelion distance 0'074841 



Period in sidereal years 5'636 



Motion direct. 

 These elements compared with observations give the following errors : 



Date Error in Long. Error in S. Lat. 



Sept. 15 6 6 



Sept. 25 +1'0 + 3'5 



Oct. 2 +6-1 -28'9 (merid. obs.) 



Oct. 5 -I-O'O O'O (merid. obs.) 



Though the period found may require considerable correction, I think 

 there can be no doubt that the orbit is really elliptic. If this be the case, 

 it is a remarkable fact that this is the second comet whose periodicity 

 has been discovered during the present year. 



92 



