Abstract
THE COMETS OF 1812 AND 1815.—We Iearn from M. Schulhof, of the Burean des Longitudes, Paris, that in conjunction with M. Bossert he bas undertaken a rigorous investigation of the orbit of the comet of 1812, which Encke showed to have a period of about seventy years, and which will consequently be again approaching its perihelion. M. Sehulhof hopes to complete the calculations early in the ensuing year. He has discovered a series of original observations by Blanpain at Marseilles, which he considers to be amongst the best, if not the best series that are available; the original observations by Lindenau have also been received, but unfortunately nothing is to be found of the long series by Zach and Triesnecker. From the manuscripts preserved at Paris some corrections have been applicable to the results as printed. To this we may add that Flaugergues' differences of right ascension and declination from his comparison stars are published in the fifth volume of Zach's Correspondance astronomique. These observations of Flaugergues' at Viviers, and those made at Paris as they appear in the first folio volume, were reduced several years since by Mr. W. E. Plummer, now of the University observatory, Oxford, and from three very carefully formed normals he deduced a period of revolution about a year and a half shorter than that assigned by Encke in Zeitschrift für Astronomie, t. ii., so that the comet may now be expected at any time. At the instance of Prof. Winnecke sweeping ephemerides have been prepared by M. Mahn of Strassburg. It is however M. Schulhof's intention, on the completion of his investigation of the orbit, to furnish observers with ephemerides similar to those which have led to the re-discovery of several lost planets.
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 23, 21 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/023021a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023021a0