Abstract
COMETARY ORBITS.—Prof. J. G. Galle has formed a most useful and very complete catalogue of orbits of comets which have been calculated since the publication of the third edition of Olbers's “Methode zur Berechnung der Cometenbahnen” in 1864. This catalogue appears in Nos. 2665–66 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. In one table are collected orbits of comets before 1860, which have been more definitively determined during the past twenty years, with a few orbits of ancient comets computed for the first time or founded upon better data, including those observed by Toscanelli ; in a second table are contained the most reliable orbits of all cornets discovered since the year 1860. The elements are given in an approximate form only, but in the notes accompanying each table reference is made to the place of original publication. Prof. Galle's résumé will be of much service to the student in this branch of astronomy. It appears to have been drawn up on the suggestion of Prof. Krüger, seeing that there was no immediate intention of publishing a fourth edition of Olbers's celebrated treatise. Five newly-detected comets of short period figure in the second table.
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 32, 162 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032162a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032162a0