A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - The second comet of 1702

 Nature February 3^rd 1876

A complete reduction and discussion of the observation of this comet, taken at Rome by Bianchini and Maraldi, does not afford indications of elliptical motion, as might be surmised to exist from the small inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic and the direct movement. In fact these observations appear to be by no means precise, and the differences from calculation inter se are too irregular to afford any hope of sensibly improving upon the orbit given by Burckhardt.

Considering the differences of right ascension between the comet and com parison stars were taken by means of clocks, and the differences of declination measured by a micrometer scale, the arc value of which was determined by observation of the Sun’s diameter, rather better places might have been looked for.

The comet was its least distance from the earth on the night of April 19^th.

                                                    www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk