File:Looking skyward and the earth, illustrated (1911) (14784864403).jpg

Identifier: lookingskywardea00snyd (find matches)
Title: Looking skyward and the earth, illustrated
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Snyder, Isaac Newton
Subjects: Astronomy
Publisher: (Liberty, Ind., Press of Express printing co.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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what they are made of and what causestheir appearance, the superstitious appendage is dis-appearing. Their numbers are great, numbering into the thou-sands, according to the best astronomers. But whenseen about their perihelion they have sometimes beenseen to change form and appearance to such a degreethat one is led to surmise that the same comet hasbeen frequently viewed as a new one. They mightnot only change in form, but change in orbit. Theone feature is as likely to occur as another, since theyare only seen when near the sun. Schiaparela thought that he could see a similaritybetween comets and meteors and hence he concludedthat their origin was from the same source. Comets orbits are either ellipses, parabolas orhyperbolas (see diagram), with the first named pre-dominating. Those with elliptic orbits are calculatedwith some degree of precision as to time, distanceand direction, but the parabolas and hyperbolas arenot. Comets are called, sometimes, vagrants, )0!) LOOKING SKYWARD.
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Coggis Comet, showing what wonderful forms some comets assume. 110 COMETS. wanderers,1 hoboes, as they approach the sun from almost all directions. Thev are also called members of our solar system from the fact that they are attracted by our great luminary, the sun. Some astronomers have noted them as ■ worlds undergoing construction. The spectroscope proves that theyhave within themselves practically the same elementsas those which are found in the spectrum of thesun. It is also believed that they are largely com-posed of gases, and gases are made out of solids, andthat they shine by light of their own production. New comets are being discovered frequently.Their sizes vary greatly, from a few hundred to morethan a million of miles in diameter. The writer hadthe luck to find tAvo comets, one in September, 1886, inCassiopia, with a rapid motion, north-eastward. An-other, and smaller one. was seen in Cassiopia also, inSeptember, 1890, with movement in the same direc-tion as the first.

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