Abstract
Tempel's Comet 1866!.?This is the comet associated with the November meteors; it has a period of about 33 years, but was not recovered at its return in 1899. In the hope of facilitating its recovery at the forthcoming return, the computing section of the British Astronomical Association undertook the computation of the perturbations from 1366 (when a comet, believed to be the same, was observed) to 1866 and onward to 1933; the results are published in the April number of the Journal of the Association, and were supplemented by a further statement at the meeting on May 27. The deduced orbit for the next return is found to be nearer the earth's orbit by half a million miles than it was in 1899, which gives hopes of a better display of meteors. The most hopeful dates for meteors are 1932 Nov. 16.5 and 1933 Dec. 16.8, but search should also be made on 1931 Nov. 17.3.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Our Astronomical Column. Nature 127, 987 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127987a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/127987a0