Observations on Comet II, 217 



to considerable advantage on the 28th and 29th. On the 28 th 

 the comet's head appeared to nie to be large rather than bright. 

 I could compare its apparent size (to the naked eye) with that 

 of Alpha in the Northern Crown, but its degree of lustre with 

 some far smaller star. I believed the tail to be of a broad and 

 fan-like shape, and to extend as high as Eta in Hercules, but in 

 excessive faintness. Very different in this respect from Donates 

 Comet, the curve of which I could compare, I remember, with 

 one cut out in paper, and held over its brilliant " preceding 

 margin," in rather close proximity to a candle. 



In the telescope I noticed that the nucleus had no star-like 

 appearance whatever, but with the jet presented the appearance 

 merely of a long and cloudy patch of light. There were some 

 picturesquely placed stars in the field of the telescope, to the 

 left of the comet ; and having noted their places accurately on 

 paper, I was much surprised and interested to observe how 

 rapidly the comet neared them. I had observed them first at 

 about nine in the evening, noticed their change of place at ten, 

 and had completed my notes of the comet's appearance more 

 than an hour later, when it occurred to me to take out the tele- 

 scope again, and ascertain how far the comet might have accom- 

 plished its transit across those stars. It had actually (at twelve 

 p.m.) left the stars far to its right, and two bright stars which I 

 had thought too far off to introduce in my first sketch were now 

 below the comet, looking about as near it as the stars Eta and 

 Zeta in Auriga do to the star Epsilon, as seen by the naked 

 eye. On the 29th, though the evening was very fine, and all 

 the sinuous windings of the Milky Way distinctly shown, I felt 

 sure the comet was not so clearly visible as on the 26th, when 

 any one could at once see its tail, even through a glass window. 

 On this evening, though I put all candles and lamps out of sight, 

 I failed to see it through that window otherwise than as a pale 

 and rather large fixed star. 



In the open air it was better, the tail showed faintly, and I 

 still thought I saw a slightly more decided outline to its left than 

 its right side. The telescopic view was rather good. The head 

 stood out well from the black sky, and on this evening the 

 nucleus was bright. I wished very much for a sight of it 

 through the most suitable instrument possible. The roundness 

 of the head was striking, and one could have almost supposed 

 there was no tail, — that part of the comet being so much fainter 

 than the head, and also somewhat narrower. 



On the 30th, between drifting- clouds, I caught sight of the 

 comet, most picturesquely placed as a temporary ornament of 

 the Northern Crown, and felt with what a new interest these 

 passing comets invest our old familiar constellations. 



Mr. Howlett's last transparency was made on this evening 



