Since the time of Christ, thanks to the spread of Christianity and
learning, with the growing zeal for keeping records and studying the
stars, a far greater number of Comets and events connected therewith
have been recorded.
A number of learned writers have made a special study of the history of
Comets and their effect upon man. Long before Lubienitius’ ponderous
work on the subject there were other histories written in Latin and
Arabic, with references to which his book abounds.
Since then others have followed in the same direction, notably Pingré,
Hind, Lalande, Messier, Chambers and latterly Messrs. Crommelin and
Cowell, of the Greenwich Observatory.
The number of known Comets has grown immeasurably since Galileo’s
invention of the telescope, 300 years ago, and our later perfections
of this instrument, together with latter-day devices for photographing
Comets invisible to the naked eye.
It would carry us too far to trace the possible connection between
modern events and Comets that were seen only by astronomers. Since
our record of Comets is already too full, we shall limit our story of
the Comets and their influence upon man to a bare recital of the most
important events connected with the more memorable and conspicuous
Comets from the time of Christ until now.