The Bismarck Tribune

PAGE TWO

HUGE COMET NEARS EARTH THIS EVENING

Visible in Northeastern Sky
-Sun's Eclipse Wednesday
Not Visible Here

New York, June 27.--(P)--Return of the Pons-Winnecke comet and a total eclipse of the sun--both occurring within 48 hours--will provide viewers of the heavens with an unusual treat this week. The eclipse, however, will not be visible in this country.

After a six year cruise through the heavens, the Pons-Winnecke comet will return to its nearest point to the earth tonight, while on Wednesday in northern Europe and Asia, the moon will blot out the rays of the sun.

A patch of light traveling 1,000,000 miles a day in a path 3,500,000 miles from the earth, is all that will be seen of the comet. It will appear in the northeastern sky.

Distinctive without a tail, Pons-Winnecke will approach the earth nearer than any other comet since 1770, when Lexell's comet was only 1,400,000 miles away.

Discovered By Pons

Tonight's celestial visitor is named after the French astronomer, Pons, who discovered it in 1819, and the German professor, Winnecke, who re-discovered it in 1858 and determined its schedule.

Scientific expeditions have been sent to Norway and Sweden with elaborate apparatus to photograph the gradual blotting out of the sun and to record, with spectrographs, the "flash" spectrum seen for a few seconds immediately before and after totality.

The eclipse begins at sunrise Wednesday, southwest of the British Isles, and successively sweeps over Wales, England, Norway, Lapland, Finland, Nova Zembla, Siberia and the Aleutian Islands. A partial eclipse will be visible all over Europe as far south as northern Africa and as far north as Alaska.