Abstract
WHEN the comet was first seen on September 16 at 22h. 45m. its appearance was most symmetrical, in colour a most intense white. The sketch shows the appearance on such a scale that the nucleus would have a diameter of about 45″, by a comparison made at the time with a sunspot, the exact size of which has since been kindly furnished by the Astronomer Royal from the Greenwich photographs of the sun. The direction of the comet was to the centre of the sun, as far as could be estimated. On p. 81 of this volume there is a diagram of the sun and the comet; the size of the comet as there given compared with the sun is about as it appeared; and if one imagines the sketch I give, reduced to the length of the sign for the comet on the diagram, and placed some two diameters of the sun to the south-west and radial, he will have a good idea of the appearance on the morning of September 17.
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COMMON, A., STAPLETON, F. The Comet . Nature 27, 150–151 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/027150e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027150e0