File:Uranography. and Atlas (1850) (14802976163).jpg

Identifier: uranographyatlas00kend (find matches)
Title: Uranography. & Atlas
Year: 1850 (1850s)
Authors: Kendall, Bzra O. (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: (n.p.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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er return, but wander inspace, till they become too thin to be seen, and are lost toour view and our knowledge. Comets that return often to their perihelion seem to losethose particles that are capable of secondary or solar polariza-tion, and have no tails. Such is the case with Enckes andGambarts comets. Halleys comet in its recent returns isfar less terrific than under similar circumstances in ancienttimes. It is impossible to conjecture what becomes of the particlesof comets thus thrown off and dispersed through space. Ifthe solar repulsion continues, they must move off in hyper-bolas to the confines of the system, perhaps to join withother nebulae, other systems, or other planets, to revolve roundother suns in a more friendly relation. POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING COMETS. The appearance of comets in ancient times wasalways a source of alarm. They were supposed,without just foundation, to be the forerunners ofthe direst calamities, wars, famine, pestilence, Great Comet of 1811.
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Great Comet of 1819. COMETS. 287 deaths of great men, &c. So great was the alarmin Christendom in 1456, during the appearance ofHalleys Comet, that Pope Calixtus, believing itto be the instrument of Divine wrath, orderedprayers to be offered up in every town, and thebells to be tolled at noon of each day, to warn thepeople to supplicate the mercy of heaven. He atthe same time excommunicated both the comet,and the Turks, whose armies had lately provedvictorious against the Christians, and establishedthe custom, which still exists in Catholic coun-tries, of ringing the church-bells at noon. Comets have also been supposed to produce irre-gularities in the seasons. When we reflect, thatprobably no season passes by without our havingat least one comet as near to us as Jupiter, wefind no just grounds for attributing to this sourceany of the calamities with which mankind areoccasionally afflicted. Another source of apprehension with regard tocomets arises from the possibility of their st

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