When The Valley Saw The Earth Pass Through Haley's Comet - 1910

 
Haleys Comet, 1910

Haley's Comet is visible every 76 years, appearing in 1910, 1986, and expected next in 2061.  In 1986 the comet passed when the earth was on the opposite side of the sun, and there really wasn't much to see.  In 2061, the comet will be even closer to the earth than in 1910.  

The earth passed through the comets tail on May 19th 1910, however it was visible to the naked eye months earlier.  This was the first approach of the comet that was photographed. A  local citizen (Possibly a Lewisburg Professor) was able to view the comet in early May - his account was recorded in the Mount Caramel Daily News on May 5th 1910:

TOWNSMAN VIEWED COMET THIS A. M. 

AN INTERESTING DESCRIPTON OF ASTRONOMICAL VISITOR IS GIVEN BELOW

 

Haley's comet was scheduled to wake up at 2:48 o'clock this morning. So I set my alarm clock  for three clock. But when the ringing of the alarm bell told me it was time to look for the comet, there was no comet in sight. Then I tried to recall the directions, printed in the papers. for finding the comet. "Look to the east where the light of the dawning sun shows faintly; then find Venus, the brightest star in the east. Measure off twenty degrees north and you'll see the cornet." 

I searched the whole eastern horizon for Venus, and there was no morning star in the sky Just then I remembered that I am dwelling in the  the midst of a great mountainous country, and in a city with high buildings all around me. I should have thought of it before, stars and suns do not rise above these mountain tops at the same time they come peeping above the ocean level. 

So I waited patiently watching the eastern sky. At about half past three, there was a great streamer of light shot out just a hand's breadth to the south of where the sun rises. I had often seen the northern lights, the Aurora Borealis, and this was just bike one of those beautiful wedge shaped streamers of the north country. I was not given much time to wonder what the Aurora Borealis could be doing In the eastern sky, for just then the covering rays of light centered in a ball of fire that was rising above the nearest house top, and I knew that I was looking at the greatest wanderer of the starry universe, Halley's, comet. 

I had not expected such a sight to greet my vision. I had seen the comet that some twenty years ago made superstitious people think that the world was coming to an end. I was expecting something like that now. But to see a pure white light away off in the horizon, brighter than any star in the sky, and reaching out from it, higher  than the tops of the mountains, a great beam of light like a powerful search light  only with its rays more divergent, this was indeed a great surprise was in store for me, for just then the stair that I had been told to look for, by which to locate the comet, slowly arose above the sky, and the most beautiful planet ever seen by man, Venus, stood out side by side with Halley's comet. 

But now the comet (rapidly began to grow dim, as If the light of Venus eclipsed the splendor of the wander-er, and the comet faded into a very dim star with a scarcely recognizable tail like appendage. I could not understand this until I saw some fleecy cirrus clouds floating in the sky. And then I knew that I had a vision of the comet that might not be equaled by any one else without the aid of a telescope, for the mists that were hanging over Mount Carmel had been just right to magnify the phenomenon of the eastern sky.

 All of us are familiar with what is known of a circle around the moon, but not al are aware that what appears to us as a circle is the effect of the rays I of light playing around in our atmosphere. And that sometimes a very beautiful circle will be seen around the moon when you are looking from a valley, but that when you have climbed a hill or mountain the circle has disappeared, then go back into the valley and the circle is there, because the mists are lying low in the valley. 

So I had the rare privilege of looking at Halley's cornet through a moisture laden atmosphere when the molecules were arranged just right to magnify the vision. Another rare sight was to reward my early rising, for a few minutes later the moon came above the eastern hills, and I knew that if I should wait until sunrise, I would be able to see what very few men have ever seen, the sun, the moon, and a star, all at the same time. A sight never seen by any one in this part of the country except when Venus is the morning star, and the moon happens to be just right. 

Just at 5:25 o;clock the sun arose above the tops of the buildings, and there, the second time in my life, I saw the sun, the moon and Venus at one time. Tomorrow morning it will be possible again to see the three, but by the time the moon is in. proper place again Venus will have become the evening star. A comes party would be a seasonable social function just now. 

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Who wrote the above account?

The above account of  the viewing of the comet appears, from the article, to have been from a resident of Mount Caramel. However, this short blurb in the Lewisburg paper mentions the comet being viewed by Prof. William C. Bartol.   Dr Bartol was a professor of emeritus and mathematics, and astronomy and historian at Bucknell.  [side note, according to his obituary in 1940, the professor was known as "grand old man" of the university, and was associated with it longer than any other person in the institutions history]  The language of the account given above leads me to believe that it was written by Dr Bartol, who lived in Lewisburg at the time.  I could be wrong of course, but that would be my best guess, especially as according to the second  blurb, published May 6th, specifies that Bartol viewed the comet on the morning of Thursday May 5th, which would be the same time the longer account above was made.

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MORE ABOUT THE COMET IN 1910

& What local newspapers had to say about it

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In February 1910, The Miltonian Reported: "Meteor showers may follow the approach of Halley's comet to the earth on May 18th about which date the contact is expected. That is the opinion of professor EB frost of the Yerkes observatory. The professor qualifies this by saying the comet may not come any nearer the earth than 14 million miles on that date. At present the comet appears like a fuzzy ball. It will be visible to the naked eye the latter part of February."

In 1910, the comet was big news, being mentioned in the local papers nearly every week for months leading up to the expected appearance in May.  For many, it brought on panic.  

"Lee J. Spangler, of York, who prophesied the San Francisco earthquake and fire, the date of the death of Queen Victoria, the assassination of President McKinley, and the drought last summer, now declares that the earth will be torn with earthquakes, that volcanoes will suddenly appear in the most unexpected place, and that drought pestilence and great wars will follow the path of Halley's comet."

In the Lewisburg Journal, April 1910

Some of the odd superstitions and events leading up to the comets arrival included:

• Fraudsters hawked anti-comet pills, with one brand promising to be “an elixir for escaping the wrath of the heavens.”  Two Texan charlatans were arrested for marketing sugar pills as the cure-all for all things comet
• A California  prospector nailed his feet and one hand to a cross and, despite his agony, pleaded with rescuers to let him remain there.
• An Oklahoma religious group called the Sacred Followers asserted that the danger of the comet could only be held off by a virgin sacrifice.  The Sacred Followers set out to perform this sacrifice, but local police intervened before the sacrifice took place.
• Gas masks "flew off the shelves" - as those who feared the comet stocked up.  People were plugging up keyholes to keep the comets vapors from entering their homes.

On June 17th the Miltonian published a note that astronomers blamed the lack of a summer on the comet.

Papers throughout Pennsylvania published a list, compiled by the editor of the Atlanta Georgian, of "Singular Events Coincident With The Appearance Of The Comet."

B.C.

• 240 - Defeat of the Carthaginians by Rome. End of the First Punic War.
• 163 - Judas Maccabaeus occupied Jerusalem
• 87 - Civil War in Rome, City taken and retaken.
• 12 - Germany invaded by Drusus

A.D.

• 66 - Vespasian began the war which ended in the destructions of Jerusalem by Titus
• 296 - Britain recovered by Constantine
• 375 - Italy invaded by Huns
• 452 - Gaul and Italy invaded by Attalia
• 531 - Fifty years of plague began in Persia.
• 610- Mohammed began to preach in Mecca
• 1066 - Norman invaded England
• 1146 - Second Crusade
• 1221 - Conquest of Khorassan and Persia by Genghis Khan
• 1378 - Clement VII anti-opoe at Avignon: 40 years schism in the church of Rome begun.
• 1456 - Turks, having taken Constantinople, threatened Europe.  Mohammed II defeated Belgrade by John Hunniades
• 1531 - Inundation of Holland.  Earthquake at Lisbon.
• 1607 - Spanish fleet destroyed by the Dutch at Gibraltar
• 1758 - Prussia overrun by Russians.  Birth of Nelson.
• 1835 - Political crisis in England

the Miltonian reported:

By the time the earth passed through the tail of the comet on May 19th, clouds obscured the visibility.  All local sightings of the comet were before the earth passed through its tail.