Abstract
The Great Comet of 1881, now known as C/1881 K1 (Tebbutt), was initially a Southern Hemisphere spectacle and then a Northern Hemisphere wonderment. This paper primarily investigates the observations of this Great Comet from New Zealand, as reported in newspapers of the time. Comet C/1881 K1 (Tebbutt) was discovered from Windsor (Australia) by John Tebbutt on 22 May 1881, only a day before New Zealand independent discovery observations were made. Within weeks of discovery, it was a spectacular comet in the evening and morning sky. This led some to speculate that there were two bright comets in the sky at the same time. At perihelion, on 16 June 1881, it was possibly around magnitude 1 and sporting a 15° tail. Of significance was that this was the first comet to have the whole comet (head and tail) photographed and the first comet to have its spectrum successfully recorded on photographic plates. This event advanced the astrophysical study of comets in that astronomers could now investigate in detail and at ease the chemical composition of a comet long after the comet was no longer visible.
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Notes
- 1.
That said, not all ‘comet’ listings were astronomical. ‘Comet’ was the name of a well-known New Zealand racehorse during the 1880s, the name of a café (Café Comet) in the South Island, and even the name of a New Zealand schooner.
- 2.
However, note that, as stated, the existence of the comet was confirmed by Ellery on 23 May (Kronk, 2003: 472).
- 3.
Even though the two colours sound contradictory, this author observed C/2021 A1 (Leonard) from New Zealand on 20 December 2021 with a 41 cm f/4.5 reflector and noted “… a lovely golden head surrounded by a green coma. The contrast was breath-taking” (Drummond, 2021).
- 4.
Unfortunately for the organisers and attendees, the evening of 2 June 1881 was “… overcast and stormy … [to the extent that] not a star was visible” (New Zealand Herald, 3 June 1881: 5).
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Drummond, J.K. (2023). New Zealand Observations of the Great Comet of 1881, C/1881 K1 (Tebbutt). In: Gullberg, S., Robertson, P. (eds) Essays on Astronomical History and Heritage. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29493-8_19
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