290 Astronomical Notes. 



external contact at egress about 2 hours 9 mins. p.m. The 

 least distance of the planet from the centre of the sun was 

 about two-thirds of the sun's radius. 



Delavan's Comet. 



This comet, which was discovered in December, 19 13, 

 was reported to be visible to the naked eye in August of this 

 year. It was then in the constellation of Aurigae, and 

 travelling towards the Great Bear, which is familiarly 

 known as the " Plough." It was in the latter constel- 

 lation in September, and well placed for observation in 

 our latitude, being then circumpolar, it was visible during 

 the whole of the night. It rapidly increased in brilliance, 

 and soon became quite a conspicuous and interesting object 

 in the evening sky, and quite entitled to rank high among 

 the naked-eye comets of recent times. It had a bright but 

 rather diffused nucleus, which reminded one of an eye on the 

 side of the head of some kind of fish. This was surrounded 

 by a less brilliant but luminous coma, which streamed away 

 in a broad, rather diverging band of light, gradually fading 

 as the distance increased, and thus formed the tail. It could 

 be very satisfactorily seen with an ordinary field glass, and 

 was at its best in the telescope when a low power was 

 used, which embraced the whole comet, including the greater 

 part of the tail. When seen with a high power the nucleus 

 was much fainter. On October loth it passed quite close 

 to Cor Caroli, that beautiful double star in Canes Venatici. 

 It passed about 7 deg-. north of Arcturus on October 26th, 

 which was the date of its perihelion passage. It continued 

 to be a beautiful and interesting object until about the middle 

 of November, when it became invisible in these northern 

 latitudes. I understand that it will continue to be visible in 

 southern latitudes for a considerable time. Although this was 

 quite a distinguished comet of its type, yet, to my mind, it 

 had not the majestic appearance and symmetrical formation 

 of the 1910 comet, which was first seen in South Africa. 



As far as I have been able to learn, the period of 

 Delavan's Comet has not yet been determined, there being 

 some question as to whether its orbit is elliptical or hyper- 



