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In the box with' the telescope was a colorful chart, showing the path of the comet and an informative booklet to inspire one’s interest. From these and other literature at my disposal, I concluded that mid-December might be a good time to begin my search for this “most spectacular of celestial bodies.”
The evening of the 10th was cold, clear and moonless. According to the chart, the., comet, in all its glory, should have been just below the “Great Square of Pegasus” close to or within the constellation, Pisces.
It was there alright, but it took me a good half hour or more to find it. The telescope proved useless for that task, due to its limited field of view — even at 30 power. The instrument best suited to finding the comet proved to be an ordinary 7x50 binocular.
That night of December 10 was perfect for viewing Halley’s. The comet could be seen as a pinpoint of light with a fussy glow of light (the tail) trailing off for a very short relative distance to its left (eastward). Having found the comet with the binocular, I was determined to get some return on the investment in the telescope, and after a great deal of effort I was able to get the instrument properly directed. But, what a disappointment! The telescope failed to make even the slightest improvement in what could be seen of this most pathetic of heavenly displays.
Nevertheless, I was extremely pleased to have found this comet which had last appeared in the year of my father’s birth. I gazed at it for a while through the binocular; then telephoned a friend and drove over to show it to her. We agreed that what we were looking at had benefitted heavily from late 20th century, Madison Avenue hype — that the delivered product failed miserably to live up to its promoters’ claims.
And now, a month later, the view is no better than before. The telescope remains in the closet and I take a desultory peek at Halley’s on occasion through the binocular. A rare spectacle it is, certainly, but, somehow, the urge was not great to cry “Eureka!”
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