Light Science for Leisure Hours

y, if we would form an estimate of the position of astronomy when Encke's most notable work was achieved. At Seeberge, under Lindenau, Encke had been perfecting himself in t

nce between this path and the observed motions of the body. When he attempted to account for the motions of the comet by means of an orbit of comparatively short period, he was struck by the resemblance between the path thus deduced and that of Comet I, 1805. Gradually the idea dawned upon him that a new era was opening for science. Hitherto the only periodical comets which had been discovered except Lexell's-the 'lost comet'-had travelled in orbits extending far out into space beyond the paths of the most distant known planets. But now Encke saw reason to believe that he had to deal with a comet travellin

or of those abstruse formul? by which the planetary perturbations are calculated. It was to the confidence engendered by this skill that we owe his celebrated discovery of the acceleration of the motion of the comet mentioned above. Assured that he had rightly estimated the disturbances to which the comet is subjected, he

nomer handles the theme he has selected. The boyhood of Encke, his studies, his soldier life in the great uprising against Napoleon in 1813, and his work at the Seeberge Observatory; his labours on comets and asteroids; his investigations of the transits of 1761 and 1769;

ges. We find Encke in communication with Humboldt, with Bessel and Struve, with Hansen, Ol

arch 10, 1870.)