Admiral Smyth would seem to represent fairly well all the remarks made by the various astronomers just cited.
I have given these details respecting Halley's Comet in 1835 at some length, thinking that they might be useful as hints to observers as to what to look for in 1910.[1]
Before proceeding to deal with the preparations which have been made against the return of Halley's Comet in 1910, it will be interesting to consider what we know of the history of this comet anterior to the apparitions already mentioned. Halley, we have seen, satisfactorily traced back his comet to 1531, but since his time it has been traced very much farther backwards, through a range indeed of some 14 centuries or more, first by the labours of Hind,[2] and Laugier,[3] and quite recently by those of Cowell and Crommelin[4] confirming Hind for the most part, and enlarging his results. The years in which identification may be regarded as more or less certain are the following[5]:—
| Year. | Interval in Years. | Year. | Interval in Years. | |
| B.C. | 11.8 | 77.8 | 989.7 | 76.5 |
| A.D. | 66.0 | 75.1 | 1066.2 | 79.0 |
| 141.2 | 77.2 | 1145.3 | 77.6 | |
| 218.2 | 77.0 | 1222.9 | 79.3 | |
| 295.2 | 78.6 | 1301.8 | 77.0 | |
| 373.8 | 77.6 | 1378.8 | 77.6 | |
| 451.5 | 79.3 | 1456.4 | 75.2 | |
| 530.8 | 76.5 | 1531.6 | 76.1 | |
| 607.3 | 77.5 | 1607.8 | 74.9 | |
| 684.8 | 75.6 | 1682.7 | 76.5 | |
| 760.4 | 76.8 | 1759.2 | 76.7 | |
| 837.2 | 75.0 | 1835.8 | 74.5? | |
| 912.2 | 77.4 | 1910.3? | ||
- ↑ Drawings by Bessel will be found in the Ast. Nach., vol. xiii, Nos. 300-2. Feb. 10, 1836. Reference may also be made to the Memoirs of the Astronomical Society, vol. x (drawings by C. P. Smyth); Sir J. Herschel's Results of Astronomical Observations at the Cape of Good Hope; and Struve's Beobachtungen des Halleyschen Kometen.
- ↑ The Comets, p. 50 et seq.
- ↑ Comptes Rendus, vol. xxiii, p. 183. 1846.
- ↑ Month. Not. R.A.S., vol. lxviii. 1908. (Five separate papers, at pp. 111, 173, 375, 510, 665.)
- ↑ This table is from Hind, but
