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IX.
Halley's Comet.
121
the perihelion occurs about the middle of October, and, as the epoch for the reappearance of the comet is about what it should be, there is "a fair probability" in favour of the identity.
A comet observed by the Chinese in the constellations Auriga, Ursa Major, and Scorpio in 608, was regarded by Hind as probably Halley's, who said that the track assigned
Fig. 45.
HALLEY'S COMET, 684. (From the Nuremberg Chronicle.)[1]
would harmonise with a perihelion passage occurring about Nov. 1. Cowell and Crommelin, however, identified the Comet of 607 (i.) as Halley's.
The previous return should have occurred about 530. There was a comet in that year, and none of the few circumstances connected with it recorded by the European chroniclers are
- ↑ This engraving and Plate XII suggest that mediæval artists were given to "terminological inexactitudes" like many of their successors. As regards Plate XII J. C. Bruce, the editor of The Bayeux Tapestry elucidated, says:—"This drawing is remarkable as furnishing us with the earliest representation we have of these bodies." It requires a little interpretation. The picture is supposed to represent Harold in a state of dire alarm on his throne, whilst his people are huddled together pointing with their fingers at the fearful portent in the sky, the birds even being upset at the sight. The legend over the picture "Isti mirant stella" records the popular feeling. Underneath we are asked to take notice of the ships of the invader.
