It is 320 years since Edmund Halley predicted the return of a comet to the night sky that would be named after him. It was in 1705,that he published A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets, in which he described the orbits of 24 comets that had been observed from 1337 to 1698. He showed that comets of 1531, 1607, had similar characteristics to the one he saw in 1682. He then reasoned that they must be the same one.
He predicted its return in 1758. It was observed bang on schedule on Christmas night December 25th, 1758. Today this comet is known as Halley’s Comet.
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
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