12/27/2022 0 Comments The great comet of 1812The artists John Linnell and William Blake both witnessed it, the former producing several sketches and the latter possibly incorporating it in his famous panel The Ghost of a Flea. The Great Comet of 1811 seems to have had a particular impact on non-astronomers. Looking at the comet till you get a criek in the neck, hand-coloured 1811 satirical print by Thomas Rowlandson It was the severest day of the great throes of the New Madrid earthquake at the same time, a fiery comet was rushing athwart the horizon". It was the coming of the first steamboat to where Cairo now is-the New Orleans, Capt. A report on the first steamship to descend the Ohio River as it approached the confluence with the Mississippi River states, "December 18, 1811.-The anniversary of this day the people of Cairo and its vicinity should never forget. The comet was apparently visible during the New Madrid earthquakes in December, 1811. William Henry Smyth, comparing his recollections of the Great Comet of 1811 to the spectacular Donati's Comet, stated that "as a mere sight-object, the branched tail was of greater interest, the nucleus with its 'head-veil' was more distinct, and its circumpolarity was a fortunate incident for gazers". In many ways the comet was quite similar to Comet Hale–Bopp: it became spectacular without passing particularly close to either the Earth or the Sun, but had an extremely large and active nucleus.īarycentric orbital periods when outside planetary perturbations Īstronomers also found the comet a memorable sight. After perihelion passage the comet has a period of 2974 years. Before perihelion passage on September 12, 1811, the comet had an orbital period of 2742 years. The comet's nucleus was later estimated at 30–40 km in diameter. The Great Comet of 1811 was thought to have had an exceptionally large coma, perhaps reaching over 1 million miles across-fifty percent larger than the Sun. Several astronomers continued to obtain telescopic observations for some months, the last being Vincent Wisniewski at Novocherkassk, who noted it as barely reaching an apparent magnitude of 11 by August 12. By September, in Ursa Major, it was becoming a conspicuous object in the evening sky as it approached perihelion: William Herschel noted that a tail 25° long had developed by October 6.īy January 1812, the comet's brightness had faded. In August, the comet was first sighted in the United Kingdom by James Veitch of Inchbonny. Both Flaugergues and Olbers were able to recover it in Leo Minor during August, Olbers noting a small but distinct tail, consisting of two rays forming a parabola, when viewing through a comet seeker. Animation of the comet's orbit between May 1811 and March 1812įrom May to August, the comet's position made it difficult to spot because of its low altitude and the evening twilight.
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