Quote#Death
I have publish'd this Specimen of Cometical Astronomy, as a Prodromus…
Quote byEdmond Halley · 1656–1742
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets (1705).
English (original)
I have publish'd this Specimen of Cometical Astronomy, as a Prodromus of a designed future Work, left, happening to die, these Papers might be lost, which every Man is not capable to retrieve, by reason of the great Difficulty of the Calculation.
— Edmond Halley
More from Edmond Halley
The Astreonomical Elements of the Motions in a Parabolick Orb of all the Comets that have been hitherto duly obferv'd. ...This Table needs little Explication, since 'tis plain enough from the Titles, what the Numbers mean. Only it maybe …
But all those that consider'd Comets, until the Time of Ticho Brahe (that great Restorer of Astronomy) believ'd them to be below the Moon, and so took but little Notice of them, reckoning them no other than Vapours.
[I]n the Year 1472, which being the swiftest of all, and nearest to the Earth, was observ'd by Regiomantanus. This Comet (fo frightful upon the Account both of the Magnitude of its Body,and the Tail) mov'd Forty Degrees of a great Circle …
Next, Hevelius (a Noble Emulator of Ticho Brahe) following in Keplers Steps, embraced the same Hypothesis of the Rectilinear Motion of Comets, himself accurately observing many of them. Yet, he complain'd, that his Calculations did not …
Wherefore, if, according to what we have already said, it should return again about the year 1758, candid posterity will not refuse to acknowledge that this was first discovered by an Englishman.
A General Table for Calculating the Motions of Comets in a Parabolical Orbit.