# Did This Comet Come Yet **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 17, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-comet-come-yet/585772 "2011-06-17T01:38:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-comet-come-yet/585772/1 "2011-06-17T01:38:56Z")
> [@](#): > > For “The Friend.” > The Comet > As soon as the evening twilight has entirely vanished, when the sky is sufficiently free from cloud and haze, there may now be discerned in the northern part of the heavens, one of those mysterious visitants which we call comets. This stranger was first discovered by Coggia, at Marseilles, as long ago as the 17th of Fourth month. For the last ten days or two weeks it has been visible to the naked eye, except where the moonlight has been too bright for it. With the aid of a glass of low power, however, it can readily be seen even when the moon is shining. The writer has viewed it in this way almost every evening for a week paBt. It can be found at any time of the night by the following description of its position. The North star, the star of the “Dipper” nearest to the North star, and the comet, form very nearly an equilateral triangle. Calling the line joining the two stars the base of this triangle, then the comet or apex of the triangle is below the base in the evening and to the right of it in the morning. Its apparent position among the stars changes at present very slowly. Hence it is coming pretty directly towards us. Owing to this foreshortening of its path, there is as yet an uncertainty as to the exact course it is pursuing. According to some observations and the calculations founded thereon, the comet should pass its perihelion^ about the 18th or 20th of the Seventh month, and be nearest to the earth about the 4th of Eighth month; while other sets of observed positions indicate an orbit that would bring it to its perihelion about the 5th of Seventh month. This uncertainty is to be expected in undertaking to determine the track of a body so very distant under circumstances so unfavorable. We may then expect our comet to become brighter for a week or two, or perhaps for a month or more yet. Should it continue to approach us for a month, it will no doubt be quite a conspicuous object, as its brilliancy will in that case increase to some twelve or fifteen times its present brightness. This evening, the moonlight being out of the way, the comet is pretty distinctly visible to the unassisted eye, but, owing in part to a slight haze in the atmosphere, it is difficult to discern the faint brush of light above it which constitutes its tail. > Those elements of the orbit of Coggia’s Comet, which make its perihelion passage about the 4th of Eighth month, sufficiently resemble the elements’of a comet observed in 1737 to render it possible that we are witnessing a return of that body. “If this be so,” to quote from an article in an English periodical from which some of the above information is taken—" what strange changes have passed over this England of ours since this bright haze last shed its pale gleam over it! George the Second was then on the throne; Walpole was Prime Minister, and the elder William Pitt had just made his entry into political life. **It would be vain to speculate as to the condition of things which will obtain when it shall next reveal itself to the gaze of the earth’s inhabitants in the year 2011**." Philada. 6th mo. 30th, 1874. Has this comet come on schedule and what comet is it classified and numbered as? ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-comet-come-yet/585772/2 "2011-06-17T01:46:22Z")
Sounds like [this one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27P/Crommelin). > [@](#): > > During the 2011 perihelion passage 27P/Crommelin was recovered on 12 May 2011 at apparent magnitude 18.7.