N00277:216
Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired…
Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired into: with an historical account of all the comets which have appeared from the beginning of the world unto this present year, M.DC.LXXXIII. : Expressing the place in the heavens, where they were seen, their motion, forms, duration; and the remarkable events which have followed in the world, so far as they have been by learned men observed. : As also two sermons occasioned by the late blazing stars. / By Mr. Increase Mather, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Three lines of Scripture texts]Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired into: with an historical account of all the comets which have appeared from the beginning of the world unto this present year, M.DC.LXXXIII. : Expressing the place in the heavens, where they were seen, their motion, forms, duration; and the remarkable events which have followed in the world, so far as thay have been by learned men observed. : As also two sermons occasioned by the late blazing stars. / By Mr. Increase Mather, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Three lines of Scripture texts]
printed by S.G. for S.S. i.e, 1683
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Towards the end of December when nearest to the Earth, it was twenty times as far off as the Moon, in the middle of January it was as high as the Sun, in the beginning of February as remote from the Earth, as Mars is. The Blaze was 14. Degrees in Longitude, being towards the extremity spread abroad, resembling a Peacocks tail. It appeared sometimes longer, and sometimes shorter. December 21. it was observed to be 22 Degrees in length, and towards the point of it, to bend a little▪ the concavity towards the Horizon, but the next day it was straight again ⟨p. 116⟩December 28. a sudden and great alteration […] observed in the Blaze; for it pointed not towards the West, as before it had done, but upwards and towards the North. From December 29. it began to incline more Eastward. January 5. the Blaze pointed directly towards the East. It was observable that it seemed still to point towards the Gemini; so that the Blaze was ever in opposition to the Sun; and we may therefore conclude that it did proceed from the beams thereof, piercing through the body of the Comet. The Star lost its Blaze in the latter end of January, and yet recovered it again in part in the beginning of February. Its motion was retrograde, from Corvus, through Hydra, the Skip, Canis major, the Hare, Eridanus, the head of the Whale unto Aries, so that it passed through six signs in the Zodiac, viz. Libra, Virgo, Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus. Thus far is Hevelius his account of this notable Comet. Not long after this another, no less admirable did appear. It was by the but now mentioned learned person first observed, April 6. St. N. about 1 h. A▪M, in the breast of Pegasus, viz. in 14.21. of Pisces, and Lat. Boreal. 26.30 of a clear and radiant aspect. In the midst of the Comets head one might with a Telescope discern one Nucleus or Star very lucid and shining like Gold, which was encompassed with a more dilute matter. The Blaze proceeding therefrom was almost as thick as the matter in ⟨p. 117⟩which the Nucleus was contained. April 8. it appeared very lucid, so that one might perceive the Comet after the other Stars disappeared, the Nucleus not much altered from what it was at first April 16. the Comet seemed brighter then any of the fixed Stars, yea to outshine Saturn; then by the help of the Telescope one might discern the Nucleus to be more bright and bigger then before.