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The New Hampshire Gazette
Portsmouth, Rockingham County, New Hampshire
What is this article about?
An anonymous observer in Portsmouth shares amateur observations of a comet's positions relative to fixed stars, noting its rapid motion and conjecturing it passed near Earth at 2-3 million miles, possibly the 1698 comet mentioned by Halley.
Merged-components note: The table contains numerical observations of the comet's positions, which are referenced in the letter; sequential reading order and spatial overlap confirm they belong together.
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To the Printer. &c.
It may be some gratification to the curious to publish the following account of the several places of the COMET which has made us so short a visit, and has just disappear'd. Having no instruments, I have traced it's way only by marking it's situation among the fix'd Stars, and depended on the Globe. But perhaps such loose observations may not be altogether useless, where better have not been made. The two last places are more indeterminate than the rest, as the Comet was then so far vanish'd as scarcely to be distinguish'd with any certainty by the naked eye.
I conjecture. that when it was first discover'd it was departing from the Sun, and passing by the Earth, at the distance of about two or three millions of miles; which made it's apparent motion very swift: and that it's orbit makes but a small angle with the ecliptic. Perhaps it may be the same obscure Comet which Dr. Halley mentions in 1698. But I leave these things to be determined by Gentlemen better acquainted with such Calculations.
Your's
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B.
| 11 | 14 | 15 | 11 | 45 |
| 12 | 11 | 30 | 10 | 00 |
| 15 | 6 | 15 | 5 | 15 |
| 16 | 5 | 00 | 4 | 15 |
| 18 | 3 | 20 | 3 | 00 |
| 21 | 2 | 30 | 2 | 00 |
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Letter to Editor Details
Author
A.B.
Recipient
To The Printer. &C.
Main Argument
the writer provides observations of a comet's positions and conjectures about its path and identity, suggesting it passed near earth and may be the 1698 comet noted by halley.
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