VI. Extracts of two letters from the Rev. Edward Gregory, M.A. Rector of Langar, Nottinghamshire, to the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne, D.D. F. R. S. Astronomer Royal; containing an account of the discovery of a comet, with observations thereon

Abstract

Extract of the first letter, dated Langar, near Nottingham. January 10th, 1793. I trouble you with this letter to communicate to you such observations as I have made of a comet, which I saw on the 8th instant. The evening of the 8th being very clear, I was employed in my observatory, in taking differences of right ascension and declination between the planet Venus and Aquarii, when, happening to look towards the north-west part of the hemisphere, I saw a star of a hazy appearance, and about the size of a star of the second magnitude, in the space between the flexure of the Dragon and the foot of Hercules, larger and brighter than I had before remarked in that part of the heavens; which excited my attention so much, as to induce me to direct such a telescope to it as lets in much light, and is generally used at sea to see objects in the night. This star seemed to have a hazy and indistinct appearance in the telescope, which immediately led me to suspect it might be a comet; but the twilight yet remaining, I was not quite certain of it. When the night was completely come on, it became evident it was a comet, the coma being of a white light, hazy, and ill defined. I could perceive no nucleus, nor as yet any appearance of a tail. I waited for, and was fortunate enough to obtain, an ob­servation of its passage over the meridian under the pole, at 4 h 8' 30" by Earnshaw's clock, or 4 h 6' 43" sidereal time; its zenith-distance, by Bird's quadrant, being 75° 16' 16". The observation of the passage over the meridian was taken by guessing when a hazy dim appearance, about the shape and size of a hen's egg, was in the centre of the field of the transit instrument; any light, however weak, effacing all the light of the comet.