The
appearance of the comet of Donati in 1858 made a lasting impression on
Houston S. Chamberlain, then 3 years old, and he became interested in
astronomy
for the rest of his life. His last home in Bayreuth had an observatory
on its rooftop. The comet will return in 3898 — if it doesn't get lost
somewhere in space. Hereunder follows an excerpt of his autobiography,
describing the phenomenon:
- „I
will
always be
grateful that fate has allowed me to witness the comet of 1858. I had
just
turned three years old, as this meteor, discovered in June, approached
in September and filled a width of 64 degrees of the dark autumn sky
in October with its mild and nevertheless radiating gloss — for my
„short-sighted“
eye like a living and pulsating heart. Even today, after nearly 60
years,
I can still remember the comet, as if I had seen it only yesterday; I
could
draw an exact map of the room with three windows, at which left one I
was
lifted on a chair every evening before I went to sleep, to
look at
the phenomenon in the sky, and I remember the pain I felt inside, when
after watching a while — my small face stuck to the windowpanes — the
maid
came to bring me to bed. Never again there appeared such an enchanting
light-phenomenon out of the darkness of the infinite universe that can
be compared with the comet of 1858; the senses of he who witnessed it
with
a receptive soul will be opened forever for the unexpected miracles
that
contradict everyday life. My whole life long this radiating star was to
me as a symbol of the inexhaustible possibilities of nature.“
 
Giovanni
Donati's comet, as seen above Paris, October 1858.
- „Three
years later another
strange comet was in the sky; but it appeared at the time of the
longest
days and shortest nights, so that it didn't leave an impression in my
memory
the way the first one did, despite its tremendous tail. What I do
remember
quite well, is the excitement about its approaching. That our earth
actually
passed through the tail of this comet, is, I believe, calculated only
later;
but the proximity was so close that the whole world spoke of it and the
news penetrated also our quiet, unscientific home. The
Protestant-Calvinistic
part of our personnel wasn't excited at all; two Catholic maids from
Normandy
on the other hand fell into a state of hysterical fright, convinced as
they were that the end of the world with its trumpets of judgement day
was neigh; in the children's room and sewing room I experienced all
these
events, suitable, to wake the notion that a threatening downfall of the
world was close at hand.“
(Translated
from H. S. Chamberlain's autobiography Lebenswege
meines Denkens (1919), p. 70.)
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