. Astronomy for students and general readers . gwhen the Turks were making war on Christendom, causedsuch terror that Pope Calixtus ordered prayers to beoffered in the churches for protection against it. Thisis supposed to be the origin of the popular myth that thePope once issued a bull against the comet. The number of comets visible to the naked eye, so far as 406 ASTRONOMY. recorded, has generally ranged from 20 to 40 in a cen-tury. Only a small portion of these, however, have beenso bright as to excite universal notice. Comet of 1680.—One of the most remarkable of thesebrilliant comets is
. Astronomy for students and general readers . gwhen the Turks were making war on Christendom, causedsuch terror that Pope Calixtus ordered prayers to beoffered in the churches for protection against it. Thisis supposed to be the origin of the popular myth that thePope once issued a bull against the comet. The number of comets visible to the naked eye, so far as 406 ASTRONOMY. recorded, has generally ranged from 20 to 40 in a cen-tury. Only a small portion of these, however, have beenso bright as to excite universal notice. Comet of 1680.—One of the most remarkable of thesebrilliant comets is that of 1680. It inspired buch terrorthat a medal, of which we present a figure, was struckupon the Continent of Europe to quiet apprehension. Afree translation of the inscription is : The star threatensevil things; trust only ! God will turn them to makes this comet especially remarkable in historyis that Newton calculated its orbit, and showed that itmoved around the sun in a conic section, in obedience tothe law of Fig. 109.—medal op the great comet of 1680. Great Comet of 1811. —Fig. 110 shows its general ap-pearance. It has a period of over 3000 years, and itsaphelion distance is about 40,000,000,000 miles. Great Comet of 1843,—One of the most brilliant com-ets which have appeared during the present century wasthat of February, 1843. It was visible in full dayhghtclose to the sun. Considerable terror was caused in somequarters, lest it might presage the end of the world,which had been predicted for that year by Millee. Atperihelion it passed nearer the sun than any other bodyhas ever been known to pass, the least distance being onlyabout one fifth of the suns semi-diameter. With a veryslight change of its original motion, it would have actuallyfallen into the sun. OREAT COMET OF 1858, 407 Great Comet of 1858.—Another remarkable comet forthe length of time it remained visible was that of is frequently called after the name of Donati
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