November 17, 1882

DAILY REVEILLE

AUSTIN, NEVADA

Friday.....November 17, 1882

THE COMET

It Reaches Its Nearest Approach to the Earth To-day.

The comet has this day approached as near to the earth as it will be allowed to come. It is now only 24,000,000 miles away, whereas on the 2nd of September, when first recorded, it was 94,000,000 miles distant. Being almost four times nearer, however, has not made any preceptible difference to its general appearance, effect or value. Its tail is about as long as ever, but shows fainter at the end, owing to its being more turned away from us. It can be seen appearing above the horizon shortly after midnight, and the whole is in full view before 1 o'clock. Before it entirely disappears, which will be in a month or two from now, it can be seen early in the evening.

Astronomers disagree as to the identity of this comet, some declaring that it is an entirely new one, never seen before, while many others positively identify it as the one which Newton observed so critically and averred would not return for seven or eight hundred years, yet it came in 1843, again in 1880, and now, only two years afterward, it comes again. Its speedy return is now prophecied, and also that on that occasion it will give a farewell benefit, and wind up with a wild desperate plunge into the sun. Meanwhile it is not to disappear altogether this time, but remain within telescopic sight, among the stars and planets of the solar system. By some astronomers it is prognosticated that it will not even travel beyond the limits of the earth's orbit. If such is the case it will hardly disappear from the unsided eye, and on its return will afford terrestrial gazers such a sight as has never before been witnessed.