Abstract
I INCLOSE a drawing made this morning after a prolonged examination (with a binocular) of the end of the comet's tail. Should you think the peculiar features which I have endeavoured to portray of sufficient interest to reproduce, the drawing is at your service. It is difficult to indicate truly features of this kind without exaggeration, if they are to catch the eye at all; but I am sure the exaggeration is very slight. The tail would seem to be about to end rather suddenly and with a broad end, when, from near the middle, shoots out, at a slight inclination to the general direction of the tail, a cleanly-shaded wisp. And as though this were due to a kind of cleft or parting, there is a corresponding broader sweeping-aside of the tail-end on the other side. One is at once reminded of the backward fraying of the broad side of a large feather. The effect is a decided enlargement of the end of the tail on one side, and a well-defined streamer shooting out at a slight inclination towards the other. The direction of the latter is such as to pass quite clear of the head, which is not a necessary consequence of its inclination, because of the curve which characterises the sharply-defined southern edge of the whole tail.
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HERSCHEL, J. The Comet. Nature 26, 622 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/026622a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/026622a0
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