3-003-683 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Comet as it appeared on Tuesday evening, at eleven o'clock, from near the South-Western Railway station, New Brentford, 1861. There is now visible in the north a comet of extraordinary magnitude...it appeared to be fully as bright as a star of the first magnitude, with a large perpendicular brush tail...Mr. Eaton, of Leyton, describes the head as having "the singular appearance of three distinct parabolic envelopes, of which the innermost was much the brightest. A space devoid of luminosity separated the innermost from the middle envelope, except at the apex...". Considering the unfavourable circumstances in which this comet has been seen in the light of the moon and in the northern twilight of summer, it must be justly considered a much more striking object than the comet of 1858 (that observed by Donati at Florence)...Sir John Hippisley, of Stone Easton, Somerset, says that its brilliancy was such that a shadow was sensibly projected on white paper when its light was intercepted by a suitable and well-defined object...We must await the observations of the Greenwich astronomers before speaking decisively on the characteristics of our aerial visitor. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.