Comet observation (1680-81)
Date
30 December 1680
Creator
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p7
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 292mm
width (page): 190mm
width (page): 190mm
Subject
Content object
Description
The position and appearance of the comet observed by Robert Hooke on 30 December 1680.
Cl.P/24/88 contains observations of comets by Robert Hooke between 1680 and 1683. These must be the papers found inserted into Hooke’s copy of the star chart Uranometria (Augsburg: Christoph Mang, 1603) by Johannes Bayer (1572-1625), which was purchased by the naturalist John Woodward FRS (1665-1728) at an auction of Hooke’s library after his death. Hooke’s copy of Uranometria is likely now the copy in the British Library (Maps C.10.a.17). Hooke used Bayer's symbols for stars in his observations.
Hooke read a paper about the nature of comets based on some of these observations at the meeting of Royal Society on 25 October 1682, though it is unlikely that Hooke read out the entire discourse, which runs to 40 pages as printed in his Posthumous Works (1705), pp. 150-90: ‘A discourse of the nature of comets’.
Cl.P/24/88 contains observations of comets by Robert Hooke between 1680 and 1683. These must be the papers found inserted into Hooke’s copy of the star chart Uranometria (Augsburg: Christoph Mang, 1603) by Johannes Bayer (1572-1625), which was purchased by the naturalist John Woodward FRS (1665-1728) at an auction of Hooke’s library after his death. Hooke’s copy of Uranometria is likely now the copy in the British Library (Maps C.10.a.17). Hooke used Bayer's symbols for stars in his observations.
Hooke read a paper about the nature of comets based on some of these observations at the meeting of Royal Society on 25 October 1682, though it is unlikely that Hooke read out the entire discourse, which runs to 40 pages as printed in his Posthumous Works (1705), pp. 150-90: ‘A discourse of the nature of comets’.
Transcription
Decemb: 30: 80
hrs 8 1/2 p.m.
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
hrs 8 1/2 p.m.
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 25 October 1682, ‘Mr. Hooke read a discourse concerning comets, and in this first part of it gave an account of several of his own observations concerning the appearances of the comets in 1680 and 1681; in which he mentioned several new and wonderful appearances of them, taking notice of the other remarks concerning them, as of their place, position, magnitude, motion, way or course, only in short, and by the bye, referring his observations in those particulars to the other parts of the discourse’ (Birch 4:162).
This observation is printed in R. Hooke, Posthumous Works, ed. by Richard Waller (London: S. Smith and B. Walford, 1705), pp. 150-90: ‘A discourse of the nature of comets’.
'December 30th, at half an hour after 8, I observed the Comet both with my naked eye, and with a glass of six foot. Its nucleus was hardly distinguishable. [...] The haziness spread from the Head on that side that was opposite to the Sun, somewhat like a parabolick figure, and made up the Blaze or Tail; but the Head was considerably lighter than the Blaze. [...] I saw the same stream of light issue out of the nucleus as I had the night before, and this in the manner of a sudden spouting of water out of an engine to quench fire which would presently again disappear, and be much like the rest of the Blaze' (p. 156).
This observation is printed in R. Hooke, Posthumous Works, ed. by Richard Waller (London: S. Smith and B. Walford, 1705), pp. 150-90: ‘A discourse of the nature of comets’.
'December 30th, at half an hour after 8, I observed the Comet both with my naked eye, and with a glass of six foot. Its nucleus was hardly distinguishable. [...] The haziness spread from the Head on that side that was opposite to the Sun, somewhat like a parabolick figure, and made up the Blaze or Tail; but the Head was considerably lighter than the Blaze. [...] I saw the same stream of light issue out of the nucleus as I had the night before, and this in the manner of a sudden spouting of water out of an engine to quench fire which would presently again disappear, and be much like the rest of the Blaze' (p. 156).
Associated place