Part 5

Zonares, the Greek historian, in his account of the death of Emperor Constantinus Ducas (who died in May, 1067), writes of the Comet as “large as the full moon, and at first without a tail, on the appearance of which the star dwindled in size.”

The Chinese astronomers have recorded that this Comet had seven tails, and was seen for sixty-seven days, after which “the star, the blaze, and the star’s tails all drew away.”

The Christian chroniclers record that this Comet, “in size and brightness equalled the full moon, while its tail, slowly lengthening as it came near the Sun, spread out into seven rays and arched over the heavens in the shape of a dragon’s tail.”

Sigebert of Brabant, the Belgian chronicler of that time, wrote of it: “Over the island of Britain was seen a star of a wonderful bigness, to the train of which hung a fiery sword not unlike a dragon’s tail; and out of the dragon’s mouth issued two vast rays, whereof one reached as far as France, and the other, divided into seven lesser rays, stretched away towards Ireland.”

William of Malmesbury wrote how the apparition affected the mind of a fellow monk of his monastery in England. His words were: “Soon after the death of Henry, King of France, by poison, a wonderful star appeared trailing its long tail over the sky. Wherefore, a certain monk of our monastery, by name Elmir, bowed down with terror at the sight of the strange star, wisely exclaimed, ‘Thou art come back at last, thou that will cause so many mothers to weep; many years have I seen thee shine, but thou seemest to me more terrible now that thou foretellest the ruin of my country.’”

Another old Norman chronicler, by way of defending the divine right of William of Normandy to invade England, wrote: “How a Starre with seven long Tayles appeared in the Skye. How the Learned sayd that newe Starres only shewed themselves when a Kingdom wanted a King, and how the sayd Starre was yclept a Comette.”

William himself appealed to the Comet as his guiding star. It shone at its brightest during the Summer months while William was preparing his expedition at St. Valery. When the spirits of his followers failed them, William pointed to the blazing Comet and bid monks and priests who accompanied his expedition to preach stirring sermons on the “wonderful Sign from Heaven.”

The trip across the English Channel, late in September, was lighted up by the Comet, and under its lustre the Norman invaders first pitched their camp at Pevensey.

Once more, when William’s Norman followers quailed at the fierce work before them, William pointed to the Comet as a token of coming victory.

A fortnight later, directly after the disappearance of the Comet, the Battle of Hastings was fought, in which King Harold and his Saxon thanes lost their lives and their country.

Afterwards, when Queen Matilda and her court ladies embroidered the pictorial story of her husband’s Conquest of England in the huge tapestry of Bayeux, they did not forget the Comet. They represented Harold cowering in alarm on his throne, whilst his people are huddled together, pointing with their fingers at the fearful omen in the sky, the birds even being upset at the sight. The Latin legend over the picture “Isti Mirant Stella” (they marvel at the star), makes it all plain.

As I. C. Bruce, the editor of “The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated,” has said: “This embroidery is remarkable for furnishing us with the earliest human representation we have of a Comet.”

The Comet of 1066 will ever be famous for ushering in a new era for England. Even to-day Halley’s Comet is remembered as “The Comet of the Conquest.”

989

The appearance of the Comet this year was marked by bloody wars all over Europe. The Lombards under Otho were harrying the ancient Roman Empire, while the heathen Danes and Wends ravaged Germany.

912

The Comet appeared early in the year and was seen over Germany, as noted in the chronicles of the monks of St. Gallus in Switzerland. Immediately after the appearance of the Comet, Germany was ravaged by war, both inside and outside, the Empire being invaded on all sides by the Danes in the North, the Slavs in the Northeast, and the Magyars from Hungary.

837

The Chinese Astronomers record two Comets for this year, one in February, and the other in April. But the modern view is that this was the same Comet, as seen going to the Sun, and afterward, when it was coming away from the Sun.

Immediately after the appearance of the Comet there followed a widespread rebellion in China with much bloodshed and fierce reprisals.

The only Christian record of the Comet we have is that of Eginard, an astrologer employed at the Court of Louis the Debonair, in France. This is Eginard’s account of the Comet: “In the midst of the holy festival of Easter there shone forth in our sky a sign always ominous and of sad foreboding. As soon as the Emperor—who was in the habit of gazing up into the sky at night—first saw the Comet, he had me called before him, together with another learned star gazer. As soon as I came before him he asked me what I thought of the sign in heaven.”

“‘Let me have but a little time,’ I asked of him, ‘that I may study this sign and see the exact constellation of the other stars around it, thus to gather from the stars the true meaning of this portent,’ promising him that I would tell him on the morrow of the results of my studies.

“But the Emperor, guessing that I was trying to gain time—as was indeed the truth, lest I be driven to tell him something unlucky and fatal to him—he said to me:

“‘Go up on the terrace of the palace and look. Then come back at once and tell me what thou hast seen! For I did not see this star last night; nor didst thou point it out to me; but I know that sign in heaven is a Comet. Thou must tell me true what it forebodes to me!’

“Then, before I could say anything, he said: ‘There is another thing thou art hiding from me. It is that changes in Kingdoms and the deaths of rulers are foretold by this sign.’

“To soothe him I reminded the Emperor of the words of the Prophet Isaiah, who said: ‘Fear not signs in the Heaven, like unto the Heathen.’

“But the Emperor smiled sadly and said: ‘We should believe only in God on High, who has created us and also all Stars in Heaven. Since He has sent this Star, and since this unlooked for Sign may be meant for us, let us look upon it as a warning from Heaven.’”

Thereupon Louis the Debonair betook himself to fasting, prayers, and the building of churches and shrines, he and all his Court. Shortly thereafter he died.

The French chronicler, Raoul Glaber, afterward wrote in his chronicle: “Comets never show themselves to man without foreboding surely some coming event, marvellous or terrible.”

760

A Comet appeared in the Spring of this year, which without any doubt whatever was Halley’s. It was recorded in detail both by European and Chinese annalists, and its orbit has been calculated and identified by Laugier.

A Greek record of Constantinople tells how “a Comet like a great beam” and very brilliant was observed in the twentieth year of Emperor Constantine V., surnamed Copronymus, first in the East and then in the West, for about thirty days. Its appearance was followed next Winter by a biting frost throughout the Orient, which endured 150 days, from October until February, blighting all crops in Egypt and elsewhere in the Eastern Empire.

684

Chinese annals record a Comet observed in the West in September and October. This accords with the computed time for the course of Halley’s Comet that year. Immediately after the Comet’s appearance, China and the Far East were ravaged by the black plague. Millions died of it. Baeda the Venerable, in his “Chronicle of the English People,” records that the plague also reached England.

607

All Europe and the former Roman Empire were in such dire confusion during this period that no records of this year, either astronomic or historical, have come down to us. Messrs. Cowell and Crommelin, however, have computed astronomically that the Comet must have appeared during this year. All we know is that Italy and the Latin World were overrun by ravaging Slavonian hordes from Hungary, who made all the country run with blood.

530

Of the Comet this year, likewise, there is no astronomic record. All we know is that the appearance of a Comet is noted in European chronicles. It was followed by a virulent outbreak of the black plague.

In the legendary history of Merlin, the ancient British seer, it is stated that on the appearance of a Comet this year he prophesied that Uter, brother of Ambrosius, on the death of the latter, should rule the kingdom; that a ray from the Comet which pointed toward Gaul presaged a son who should be born to him and who should be great in power; and that the ray “that goes toward Ireland represents a daughter, of whom thou shalt be the father, and her sons and grandsons shall reign over all the Britons.” These prophecies all came true.

451

The Comet which appeared over Europe this year has been proven by Laugier to have been Halley’s Comet.

It was seen in France just before the monster battle on the Catalaunian Fields (Châlons-sur-Marne), when Aetius, the last of the Romans, together with King Theoderic and his Goths, stemmed the tide of Hunnish invasion led by Attila, the “Scourge of God.”

Theoderic, together with 148,000 warriors on both sides, were slain in this tremendous fight, which alone saved Europe from Tartar savagery.

373

Chinese annals of this year record a Comet seen in the northern constellation of Ophiuchus in October. This year marks the beginning of the tremendous migration of peoples, which started in Mongolia and Tartary, and crossing the Volga gradually overflowed all the known world, like a huge human deluge.

295

The appearance of a Comet this year (identified by Hind with Halley’s) was followed by a bloody rebellion of the ancient Britons against the Romans, and by another rebellion against Rome by the Egyptians. These patriotic uprisings of the people were suppressed with fire and sword and both countries ran with blood.

218

The Chinese catalogue of Ma-tuan-lin records a Comet with a path exactly analogous with the orbit of Halley’s Comet computed for that year by Hind. In the Chinese record the Comet is described as “pointed and bright.” Its coming was connected with the death of Emperor Ween-te directly afterward, and the Civil Wars between various claimants to the throne of the Celestial Empire, which then rent China asunder.

Dion Cassius, the Roman historian, describes the Comet of this year as “a very fearful star with a tail stretching from the West towards the East.”

The Roman augurs explained the Comet as a portent of the bloody death of Emperor Macrinus of Rome, who was murdered by his own soldiers on the night after the disappearance of the Comet.

141

In this year the Chinese astronomers recorded a Comet in March and April (the time computed for Halley’s Comet), which they described as “a star six or seven cubits long and of a bluish-white colour.” The coming of the Comet was followed by a virulent outbreak of the plague in China and the Far East, which spread all over the known world. So virulent was this pestilence that in the City of Naples alone 400,000 people died of the disease.

65-66

Halley’s Comet, according to astronomic calculations, must have made its reappearance during the winter months of 65-66 A. D. The Chinese have recorded “two Comets,” one in 65, which was seen for fifty-six days, and “the other” in February, 66, which remained visible fifty days.

This was the Comet which St. Peter and Josephus saw over the City of Jerusalem, before the fall of the Holy City. Josephus wrote of it: “Amongst other warnings, a Comet, of the kind called Xiphias, because their tails appear to represent the blade of a sword, was seen above the doomed city for the space of nearly a whole year.”

Jerusalem was ravaged by pestilence and famine and soon afterward was stormed by the Roman soldiery led by Titus. The Temple was burned down and the streets of the Holy City ran with blood. It was the end of Jerusalem and of the Jews as a free city and people.

B. C. 11

This is the farthest back that the appearances of Halley’s Comet have been traced in history. For earlier appearances there are no sufficiently trustworthy computations or records.

Dion Cassius in his “History of Rome” has recorded “a Comet which hung suspended over the City of Rome just before the death of Agrippa,” who ruled over the Roman Empire during the absence of Augustus in Greece and Asia. Agrippa was so universally beloved, and his death was held to be such a loss to Rome that he was buried with imperial honours in the tomb intended for Augustus.

The death of Agrippa occurred in the year 12, shortly after the disappearance of the Comet which Hind has identified with Halley’s.

* * * * *

This completes the record of all the known appearances of Halley’s Comet. The record fully justifies Chambers’ dictum, that the “Comet known as Halley’s is by far the most interesting of all the Comets recorded in history.”

This historic record also appears to justify in no small measure the popular beliefs of the last two thousand years concerning Comets, as expressed by Leonard Digges in his book on Prognostics, published 350 years ago:

“Cometes signifie corruption of the ayre. They are signs of earthquakes, of warres, of changying of Kyngdomes, great dearth of food, yea a common death of man and beast from pestilence.”

THE STORY OF EDMUND HALLEY

The great French astronomer Lalande considered Halley the greatest astronomer of his time. This opinion is still held. Halley’s “time” means the age of Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton, Flamsteed, Hevelius, and Leibnitz, all of whom achieved first rank in Astronomy.

Halley’s greatest achievement in Astronomy was the discovery that our solar system was but an atom in immeasurable space whence wandering stars could be caught within the influence of our Sun, our Earth and the other Planets swinging around our Sun.

Halley was the first to discover and to prove that the Comets that come within the vision of man have fixed periods of return. He made this discovery during the appearance of the great Comet of 1682, which has since been known by his name.

In his studies of the motions of Comets, of which Halley computed the orbits of twenty-four, he observed that a Comet of similar phenomena, recorded by Appian in 1531 and by Kepler in 1607, had swung through the same orbit as the Comet under his observation in 1682. Halley surmised from this that these Comets might be one and the same, whose intervals of return appeared to cover a period of seventy-five or seventy-six years. Halley’s surmise seemed to be confirmed by the recorded appearance of similar bright Comets in the years 1456, 1378, and 1301, the intervals again being seventy-five or seventy-six years.

Halley was deeply imbued with Newton’s new discovery of gravitation, for the publication of which Halley paid the expenses, so he brought the principles of Newton’s theory of gravitation to bear on his own new theory of the motions of Comets. He rightly conjectured that Comets were drawn to our Sun across the disturbing orbits of our planetary system, and that the comparatively small differences of one or two years in the recorded intervals of this one Comet (Halley’s Comet) were due to the attraction of the larger planets.

During the previous year, 1681, Halley computed that the Comet had passed near the planet Jupiter, the attraction of which must have had a considerable influence on the Comet’s motion. Making due allowance for this disturbing influence of Jupiter, he computed that the Comet would return to the vicinity of our Sun about the end of 1758 or beginning of 1759.

Halley did not live to see his prediction fulfilled (he died in 1742), but he wrote shortly before he died: “If this Comet should return according to our predictions about the year 1758, impartial posterity will not refuse to acknowledge that this was first discovered by an Englishman.”

All through the year 1758 the most noted astronomers of Europe were on the lookout for the return of the predicted Comet. One of these astronomers, Messier, looked for it through his telescope at the Paris Observatory every night from sunset to sunrise throughout that whole year. On Christmas night, 1758, the Comet was first seen by a German peasant near Dresden, who had heard about the Comet and was looking for it. He was a man of unusually good eyesight, yet his discovery was doubted until Messier, nearly a month afterward, at Paris, “picked up” the Comet with his telescope.

From that time forth this Comet, which returned in 1835, and is reappearing in this year (1910), has been known as Halley’s Comet.

Besides this achievement, Halley accomplished many other noteworthy feats in astronomy, such as his discovery of the proper motions of the fixed stars; his detection of the “long inequality” of Jupiter and Saturn, and of the acceleration of the moon’s mean motion; his theory of variation, including the hypothesis of various magnetic poles, with his suggestion of the magnetic origin of the aurora borealis; and his indication of a method still used for determining the solar parallax by means of the transits of Venus.

On the strength of these achievements, Halley for many years was elected to serve as secretary to the Royal Society. Commissioned as a Captain in the Royal Navy, he also commanded a vessel on a long cruise of exploration, and late in life he was made Astronomer Royal.

Although in his sixty-fourth year, he then undertook to observe the moon through an entire revolution of her nodes (eighteen years), and actually carried out his purpose. To appreciate the full significance of so painstaking an achievement it should be borne in mind that astronomical observations must be made in a temperature equal to that of the open air. Observatories cannot be heated because the heat would impair the accuracy of the instruments.

Great astronomers, like poets, are born, not made. Edmund Halley was one of these. At the age of seventeen he had already observed the change in the variations of the compass. At nineteen he was recognized as an astronomer of reputation, having supplied a new and improved method of determining the elements of the planetary orbits. His detection of considerable errors in the tables then in use led him to the conclusion that a more accurate determination of the places of the fixed Stars was indispensable to the progress of astronomy. With this end in view he set out on a voyage to the other side of the globe, St. Helena, where he undertook the task of making complete new observations of the entire Southern Hemisphere. Though the Heavens proved clouded he succeeded within two years in registering three hundred and sixty stars, a colossal achievement which won for him the title of the “Southern Tycho.” This was when Halley was barely of age.

(The famous astronomer Tycho Brahe, long before this had won his fame by mapping the stars of the Northern Heavens.)

No one could well have begun with prospects more remote from so high a career, for Edmund Halley was born in 1656, the son of a soap boiler in a shabby London suburb. From the refuse of rancid fat and lye the boy was rescued by friends, who procured for him a scholarship at Saint Paul’s school. By his brilliant attainments in mathematics he won another scholarship to Oxford University.

While at Oxford the youth published a treatise on the planetary orbits and argued the Sun’s axial rotation.

On his graduation from Oxford, the young would-be astronomer conceived the project of turning his attention to the southern Stars, of which no good observations had been made. Shortly before this time a Dutch astronomer, named Houtman, had observed these Stars in the island of Sumatra; and Blaeu, the best globe maker of the age, had used these new observations in the correction of his celestial globes. Halley, on examining these corrections, came to the conclusion that he himself could do better. He also concluded that the Island of St. Helena might be a better point for southern observations. His father, unable to pay the expenses of so long a trip, broached the project to some friends. The young astronomer was recommended to King Charles II. by Williamson and Jones Moore, and the King in turn recommended the youth to the Indian Company, which then had control over the island of St. Helena.

After this all was plain sailing. The India Company placed a ship at his disposition and promised him all the assistance he required. Young Halley provided himself with telescopes, and micrometers, and other instruments of the latest approved pattern. In November, 1666, at the age of twenty, he sailed for St. Helena. Among his luggage was a sextant of five and a half feet and a telescope twenty-four feet in length constructed under the supervision of Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal.

Halley was disappointed in the climate of St. Helena. Frequent rains and a constantly hazy sky scarcely permitted any observations in the months of August and September. Notwithstanding these difficulties, he succeeded in observing and cataloguing some 360 Stars.

In addition to his work on the Stars, Halley made some investigations on the Moon’s parallax, combining his observations at St. Helena with those made in northern skies. He also evolved a new theory of the Moon’s motion, which proved of great aid in the determination of longitudes.

On November 7, 1677, Halley observed a transit of Mercury which suggested to him the important idea of employing similar phenomena for the calculation of the Sun’s distance.

Halley returned to England in November, 1678, and was hailed by his fellow astronomers as the “Southern Tycho.” He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and by the King’s command the degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford.

Six months later Halley set out for Dantsic for a personal conference with Hevelius, the Polish astronomer. Halley wanted to satisfy himself as to the accuracy of observations claimed by Hevelius without the aid of a telescope. Halley convinced himself that the errors of the observations made by Hevelius were less than had been supposed, and did not exceed a minute of an arc. The two became life-long friends. Halley proceeded to other cities of Europe where there were observatories. In Paris he observed with Cassini the great Comet of 1680. This was the beginning of Halley’s special study of Comets.

Returning to England, the young astronomer married the daughter of Mr. Tooke, auditor of the Exchequer, with whom he lived harmoniously until her death, fifty-five years later. The young couple settled at Islington, where Halley erected an observatory of his own and engaged in constant lunar observations with a view toward finding a method for computing longitudes at sea.

Halley’s mind at the same time was busy with the momentous problem of gravity, upon which Isaac Newton was working then. Independently of Newton, Halley reached the conclusion that the central force of the Solar System must decrease inversely as the square of the distance. Having applied vainly to his fellow astronomers, Hooke and Wren, Halley in August, 1684, made a special journey to Cambridge to consult Isaac Newton, who confirmed his conjectures.