212 



halley's comet. 



As the perihelion passage, or nearest approach of the 

 comet to the sun, occurred on November loth, 1835, the 

 above observations were made previous to the dash round 

 that orb. And as it is a well-known fact that comets make 

 their best show after, not before the event, this may account 

 for the evidently poor display made by the 1835 appearance. 

 After the perihelion passage the comet was observed only at 

 southern observatories. This year, on the other hand, the 

 body passed nearest to us after perihelion when, had other 

 things been equal, everything was favourable to a fine spectacle 

 being presented. But unfortunately, as it happened, other 

 things were not equal and disappointment resulted. 



About the middle of May, 1836, the famous wanderer 

 became lost to view on its long journey to the confines of the 

 solar system, and for the matter of three-quarters of a century 

 nearly, public interest in the comet waned, to be revived once 

 more in 1909 because of the announcements by astronomers 

 that another visit was due. Expectation at once rose to a 

 high pitch in many quarters as to who should be the lucky 

 individual to first sight and announce the approach of the 

 historic body. At last, on Sunday, September 12th, the 

 comet declared its arrival on a photographic plate at Heidel- 

 berg in Germany, and Prof. Max. YVoolf had the honour of 

 telling the world that the long expected visitor had at length 

 come within range of the camera. 



Following this welcome announcement, the scientific 

 papers during the next few weeks published interesting 

 paragraphs giving particulars, with date, of the comet having 

 been photographed at one after another of the big Obser- 

 vatories, then of its having been seen visually by this observer 

 and that with instruments of gradually decreasing power. 

 Some of us in Guernsey courted failure by trying to emulate 

 the doings of observers in other places and possessed of better 

 instruments than our own, and for many weeks, nay months, 

 were forced to possess our souls in patience. 



In this manner and with hope still awaiting fulfilment, 

 the year 1909 was gathered to its fathers and 1910 saw the 

 light. Still we persevered in our small way and on every 

 clear evening, when we could manage it, searched the critical 

 part of the sky for sight of the visitor. Success came at last 

 on Monday, January 10th, to my friend, Mr. E. Rammell, in 

 town, who that evening fixed thn comet in his glass. Two 

 days later, on Wednesday, January 12th (exactly four months 

 after its discovery), I did the same at St. Martin's, and saw a 

 very faint, ill-defined nebulosity, whitish in colour and difficult 



