Talk:Great Comet of 1744

A fact from Great Comet of 1744 appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 22 November 2008 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that C/1743 X1, the Great Comet of 1744 (pictured), is thought to have been the sixth intrinsically brightest on record and went on to develop six tails?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/November.

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Image

There is a better version of the image here clearly showing six tails (the sixth is very faint or absent in the existing image). I believe this came from a 19th century French book (the existing image is from a German book of the 1880s) but cannot confirm this exactly at the current time.

Both images originate in a contemporary engraving after de Cheseaux - it is his sketch of the tails at 4am on March 9th. Anyway, might want to consider replacing the image at some point.Svejk74 (talk) 09:49, 19 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Found the source - it's from Amedee Guillemin, The Heavens (London, 1883 - French edition rather earlier). I'll add the image and update it as it more clearly shows six tails. Svejk74 (talk) 09:28, 24 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]