Great Comet of 1882

Pioneering efforts to record the appearance of the Great Comet of 1882 were made in Cape Town by David Gill (Her Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape 1879-1907) with the aid of a local photographer and his portrait lens. They obtained some of the first astronomical photos ever taken. The number of stars visible on the negatives led directly to the idea of carrying out an international all-sky photographic survey of the sky, the Carte du Ciel programme, which lasted almost 100 years.

 

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Comet Halley from Sutherland by Brian Carter 14 March 1986 (Full Image Size 44KB)
Comet Hale-Bopp from Sutherland by Case Rijsdijk 1 May 1997 (Full Image Size 11KB)	Comet Hyakutake from Sutherland by Case Rijsdijk 5 May 1996 (Full Image Size 41KB)
Great Comet of 1882 November 7 (Full image size 55KB)	Great Comet of 1882 November 14 (Full image size 33KB)

 

Contacts: Dave Laney