SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 37 
Astronomical Section 
The Astronomical Section has been holding its sessions at 
the lecture room at the residence of S. J. Keese, 1509 Shatto 
street, since the opening of the present season. 
At the October meeting interesting facts regarding Daniel’s 
ereat comet, which arrived at perihelion September 4, were 
brought out by Chairman Wm. H. Knight. The comet ap- 
proached within 48,000,000 miles of the sun, about half the 
distance of the earth from that body, and was consequently 
subjected to intense heat. Though an object of extreme tenu- 
ity, its bulk exceeded that of the sun, and there streamed 
from its bright nucleus a tail 15 degrees in length upon the 
celestial vault, but projecting into space a distance of 20,000,- 
000 miles, in a direction opposite that of the sun. Being the 
brightest of the comets which have visited our northern heavy- 
ens since that of 1882, it was carefully studied with those scien- 
tific aids—the telescope, the spectroscope and the camera, all 
of which have been brought to a high degree of perfection dur- 
ing the last quarter of a century. As a comet approaches the 
sun, its frozen, dermant gases are vaporized and enormously 
expanded, and a fierce internal commotion, chemical and elec- 
tric, is set up, a violent ebulition takes place, the dissociated 
molecules appear to be projected with great energy, and are 
then repelled by the sun’s rays, or some electrical or other 
mysterious force, and the electrons or radiant matter thus set 
free are sent flashing far out into interplanetary space. The 
orbit of Daniel’S comet approximated that of a parabola, and 
it moved round the sun with a velocity so great that it may be 
earried beyond the powerful attraction of that monarch of our 
system, never again to return to this portion of the universe. 
The November evening was devoted to lantern views of a 
large number of interesting celestial objects. including views 
of the moon, spectra of the sun, phases of Venus, polar caps 
of Mars, belts of Jupiter, ring system of Saturn, principal 
comets of the 19th century. double and multiple stars, and 
brilliant star clusters. 
The complex nature of the multiple star Polaris was shown 
by diagrams on the blackboard. In the first place there is 
the well-known telescopic double, the small companion being 
of the 9th magnitude and having the same proper motion as its 
primary. Second, Director Campbell of the Liek Observatory, 
