_Contents_
PREFACE xi
_Chapter One_: COMETS AS PORTENTS 1
_Chapter Two_: COMET-HUNTING AS A HOBBY 16
_Chapter Three_: THE STORY OF DONATI’S COMET 37
_Chapter Four_: COMETS IN DISTRESS 46
_Chapter Five_: PHOTOGRAPHY AS APPLIED TO COMETS 67
_Chapter Six_: RETURN OF HALLEY’S COMET IN 1910 94
_Chapter Seven_: ORIGIN OF COMETS AND METEORS 133
_Chapter Eight_: METEOR STREAMS 168
_Chapter Nine_: DID LIFE FIRST COME TO THIS EARTH IN A METEOR? 196
_Illustrations_
PROFESSOR E. E. BARNARD _Frontispiece_
_facing page_
DAYLIGHT COMET 1910 A 8
THE COMET-SEEKER ON THE ROOF OF THE YERKES OBSERVATORY,
AT WILLIAMS BAY, WISCONSIN 18
COMET OF DONATI 42
PHOTOGRAPH OF MOREHOUSE COMET, 1908 C 68
JOHN TEBBUTT, NOTED COMET-HUNTER OF WINDSOR, N. S. W. 70
THE GREAT DAYLIGHT COMET, SEPTEMBER, 1882 80
PHOTOGRAPH OF A BRIGHT METEOR, BY DR. W. J. S. LOCKYER 84
COMET 1893 IV BROOKS 92
HALLEY’S COMET AND THE PLANET VENUS 94
HALLEY’S COMET 110
COMET 1861, JULY 2, AS SEEN AND DRAWN BY R. A. PROCTOR 118
HALLEY’S COMET 124
THE ORBIT OF HALLEY’S COMET 126
THE SOUTHERN COMET OF JANUARY, 1887 144
OUTH LODGE, KEITHICK, WHERE THE STRATHMORE METEORITE
FELL THROUGH THE ROOF, DECEMBER 3, 1917 200
STRATHMORE METEORITE, ESSENDY FRAGMENT 202
_Preface_
This book contains an account of some of the quaint ideas entertained
regarding comets, meteors, and shooting stars in the days of long ago,
when they were looked upon with apprehension and fear. Their appearance
was supposed to herald coming disaster, until Science lifted the veil
which obscured their real meaning from view. As soon as it was known
that these visitants from the star-depths were composed of such airy
texture that, as Sir John Herschel once expressed it, they could be
easily packed in a portmanteau, tail and all, the fear of comets was at
an end, and their appearance is nowadays hailed with delight.
Possibly no one appreciated this fact more strongly than the late
Professor Barnard of the Yerkes Observatory, at Williams Bay, Wisconsin;
and as Professor Frost, the director of the observatory, remarks, in a
letter granting the author a permit for the use of several photographs
of comets taken by him, “it is most appropriate that your book should be
dedicated to him, as he certainly had an ardor in observing and studying
comets that has seldom been equaled.”
In the chapter on “Comet-hunting as a Hobby,” after describing how
popular it was some years ago, when cash prizes were offered to
successful finders, an instance is given thereof in the story related by
the late Professor E. E. Barnard, entitled “The House that was Built
with Comets.” As a matter of fact, it was built by means of financial
aid obtained in this way. Shooting stars also come in for their due
share of attention, as well as fireballs which present rather an
alarming aspect until one realizes that the sudden blaze of light
indicates their annihilation.
The book is illustrated with prints, charts, drawings, and photographs,
and permits for their use are gratefully acknowledged to the Astronomer
Royal, in connection with photographs obtained at the Royal Observatory,
Greenwich; and to the directors of the Cape of Good Hope and
Johannesburg Observatories in Africa, and the Yerkes Observatory in U.
S. A. Also for permission kindly given by the director of Harvard
College Observatory, U. S. A., to make a copy from a drawing of Donati’s
comet, made by Professor Bond in the year 1858.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Mr. W. F. Denning (Bristol) for the
loan of the photograph of the Strathmore meteorite, which fell December
3, 1917, making a hole in the roof of Outh Lodge, Keithwick.
The author is specially indebted to Mr. Denning for his kindness in
looking over the MS. of Chapter VIII, which deals with “Meteor Streams
and Shooting Stars”; and to Dr. A. C. D. Crommelin for a like favor in
connection with the chapters dealing with “Halley’s Comet as Seen in
1910,” and the “Origin of Comets and Meteors,” the most important
chapter in the book. It incorporates the views advanced by my father
some thirty-five years ago, concerning the ejection theory of comets,
stanchly advocated by Dr. Crommelin, as compared with the more modern
capture theory. The chapter is also of special interest, as, in a way,
it partly supplies the missing chapter in my father’s unfinished work,
_Old and New Astronomy_.