Moses Holden and the comet of 1840

 

Blackburn Standard Wednesday 4^th March 1840

THE COMET

To the Editor of the Blackburn Standard.

Sir, —Will you have the goodness to insert in the Standard the following account of a comet which is now seen: it is written by Mr. Moses Holden, whose lectures many of your readers will remember, and appeared in the Preston papers of last Saturday:-

" A second Comet has appeared this year, although the month of February is not yet out. This second is very small, and can only be seen with a good telescope. I saw it on the 23rd, it was little above the girdle of Andromeda, and did not look half large as the Nebula in that girdle, nor half as large as Encke's Comet. Its movement for the week along the girdle of Andromeda, as it passes the stars, is as follows,

Feb 1840 29 28 27 26 25 24 23

o o o o o o o Comet.

                               Nu*

Beta *       Mu* 

                                        0 Nebula

An equatorial telescope turned to right ascension, in time 1 hour and 15 minutes, and declination 35 deg, 5 min., will be near the place, and with a Comet eye-piece would soon find it this evening.