Abstract
BY letters from Mr. Gill received by the mail leaving Cape Town on February 3, it appears that the large comet of which Dr. Gould telegraphed from Buenos Ayres was discovered, so far at least as regards a part of the tail, on February 1, from the west side of Table Mountain. Mr. Gill received information that a comet's tail “hsd been seen to set”from this quarter on the following afternoon, and the same evening the extreme portion of the tail was visible over the mountain from the Royal Observatory; by going a quarter of a mile south of the Observatory, the near shoulder of the mountain was cleared, and the tail, rapidly brightening, was traced further; it passed parallel to a line joining β and δ Gruis, about 10′ to W., but Could not be traced beyond the former star, Mr. Gill thought the nucleus had set almost at sunset.
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The Great Southern Comet . Nature 21, 425 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/021425a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/021425a0