Our Astronomical Column

Abstract

THE COMET OF 1106.—In Mr. Williams's account of the object observed by the Chinese in this year, and called a comet by Ma Twan Lin, we find the following note:- “This appears to have been a large meteor, as it seems to have been seen for a short time only.” It is probable that the author had not compared Pingré's description of the motion of the comet, which was certainly observed in Europe early in the year, or he would have seen that in all likelihood, notwithstanding Ma Twan Lin's account reads as if it referred to a temporary phenomenon, the Chinese really observed the bright comet recorded by the European historians. We are told that in the fifth year of the epoch Tsuhg Ning, on day Woo Seuh of the first moon (1106, Feb. 10) a comet appeared in the west; it was like a great Pei Kow (a kind of measure). The luminous envelope was scattered; it appeared like a broken-up star. It was sixty cubits in length and three cubits in breadth. Its direction was to the north-east; it passed through Kwei, Lew, Wei, Maou, and Peih, which are sidereal divisions determined according to Biot by the stars β Andromedæ, β Arietis, α Muscæ, η Tauri, and ɛ Tauri respectively. “It then entered into the clouds, and was no more seen.” Gaubil's manuscript, used by Pingré, assigns precisely the same course.