Regency Events: The Great Comet of 1811

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THE COMET lately discovered was observed from Stob's Castle Roxburghshire The Comet became visible immediately after twilight at a considerable elevation in the Zodiac nearly due west and set about half past eight o clock within a few degrees of north west The nuclens or star when viewed through a small telescope appeared about the size of a star of the first magnitude but less vivid and of a pale dusky colour The atmosphere of the Comet owing to the limited power of the teles cope was barely perceptible The tail daily increasing in magnitude and splendor as the Comet approaches the Sun appeared sometimes extremely brilliant seeming to be a vibration of luminous particles somewhat re sembling the Aurora Borealis and at other times almost to disappear From the arch described by the Comet in the Zodiac in the short space of two hours its velocity must be immense By the nearest computation which circumstances and situation allowed Supposing the Comet as far distant as the Sun or about 12,000 diameters of the earth it must be moving in the present stage of its perihelion at the amazing velocity of nearly a million of miles an hour or upwards of 16,000 miles a minute Such astonishing rapidity is indeed almost inconceivable but the velocity of the Comet observed at Palermo in 1770 by Mr Brydone was still more remarkable which in 24 hours described an arch in the Zodiac of upwards of 50 deg in length and was computed by that ingenious gen tleman to be moving at the rate of sixty millions of miles in a day or up wards of 40,000 miles in a minute WILLIAMS, J. (1811). A Description of the nature and number of Comets seen within five hundred years … also, an account of various eruptions from the burning mountains, Vesuvius and Ætna, etc. United Kingdom: R. Peart & Company.

Discovered on March 25, 1811 by Honore Flaugergues, a French Astronomer, the Great Comet of 1811 was visible by the naked eye for approximately 260 days, the longest recorded period of visibility until Hale Bopp Comet in 1997.  This comment would be described in such legacy works such as War and Peace and Les Miserables, and also be credited with a blessing to the Eight Trigram Sect to overthrow the Qing Dynasty, which they launched in 1813.

Not to be outdone, wine merchants capitalized on a highly productive year and marketed Comet Wine at exorbitant prices.

Many comets after would be referred to as the Great Comet, so it was not a singular appellation regardless of its high and long visibility. It did not diminish the overall fame of the 1811 comet:

1811 The first or great comet of 1811 is perhaps the most famous of modern times Independently of its great magnitude the position of the orbit and epoch of perihelion passage were such as to render it a very splendid circumpolar object for some months It was detected with the aid of the telescope by M Flaugergues at Viviers on the 26th of March 1811 and was last seen by Wisniewski at Neu Tscherkask in the south of Russia on the 17th of August 1812 In the autumnal months of 1811 the bright nucleus and tail became visible soon after
the shades of evening closed in and continued so throughout the night the high northern declination causing the comet to appear constantly above the horizon in these latitudes The tail was longest about the end of the first week in October it then extended over an arc of 25 and was 6o broad According to the observations of M Bouvard the tail was divided into two branches after the end of August making an angle of little less than 90 with each other Sir W Herschel paid close attention to this comet he distinctly saw a well defined planetary disk involved in the nebulosity forming the head and by accurate measurement determined its real diameter to be about 430 miles This disk was of a pale ruddy colour the surrounding nebulosity greenish or bluish green When the comet was examined with high magnifiers the appearance of a stellar nucleus va nished and the light was spread though not uni formly The real length of the train about the middle of October was upwards of one hundred millions of miles and its breadth about fifteen millions Accord ing to the calculations of Professor Argelander the most complete that have been made the period of revolution at the epoch of perihelion in 1811 was 3065 years subject to no greater probable error than 43 years But on computing the variation of the greater axis due to the attractions of the larger planets up to May 1827 he ascertained that the revolution would be shortened even in this brief interval by no less than 177 years or that the periodic The following numbers which deserve confidence repre
time corresponding to the end of May 1827 was about 2888 years How much further it may be altered will probably be left for determination by those who may be interested in its return Another comet was observed in 1811 but it was very far inferior to the first in splendour Hind, J. R. (1852). The Comets: A Descriptive Treatise Upon Those Bodies. With a Condensed Account of the Numerous Modern Discoveries Respecting Them; and a Table of All the Calculated Comets, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time. United Kingdom: J.N. Parker and son.

 

The Great Comet of 1811, as sketched by William Henry Smyth

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One Response to Regency Events: The Great Comet of 1811

  1. Nancy Mayer says:
    May 22, 2025 at 8:52 am

    Byron mentioned it in his poem on The Waltz. I read somewhere that Napoleon took the comet as a sign he would succeed in his endeavors and so invaded Russia. Though the Comet is called the Great Comet of 1811 and was visible across England and the rest of Europe for some time, it often gets over shadowed by such comets such as Halley’s which return. The Great Comet of 1811 was note worthy by how long it stayed visible.