Observations Upon the Late Great Comet and Transit of Venus: Made at Crowborough, Sussex, in the Year 1882
C. L. Prince
Paperback
(Forgotten Books, Feb. 2, 2018)
Excerpt from Observations Upon the Late Great Comet and Transit of Venus: Made at Crowborough, Sussex, in the Year 1882No sooner was it observed in England than a host of conjectures arose as to whether this fine comet was a stranger or not, and the wildest theories respecting it obtained credence; in fact, among a certain class, the whole solar system was supposed to be in imminent danger of entire destruction. To astronomers, generally, the comet was found to be a great mystery with reference to the period of its orbit, and an idea was hastily entertained, at first, by Prof. Boss, of America, and others, that it might probably be a return of the great comet of 1843 and 1880. A little careful study sufficed to decide that, however nearly corresponding in some parti culars, yet the identity of the orbits of those two comets with that of 1882 (so far as observations had already been made) could not be established. The announcement of this fact succeeded in dispersing many of the sensational ideas, in relation thereto, which were becoming only too prevalent. Moreover, before such a decision could be arrived at, it would be imperatively necessary to examine the important observa tions which would in due time reach us from the southern hemisphere. It has rarely happened that very accurate observations of the position of any comet before, as well as after, perihelion passage have been possible, but in this instance it was accomplished in a very satisfactory manner both at the Cape of Good Hope and in America.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.