Oct 20 1982
From The Space Library
The 200-inch telescope at Mt. Palomar Observatory and an extremely sensitive electronic camera made the first confirmed sighting of Halley’s Comet beyond the orbit of Saturn. Recording the reflected light of an object the night of October 15 and observing it again at a predicted location the night of October 17, G. Edward Danielson and David C. Jewitt of CalTech told an October 20 press conference "it was both where we expected it to be and had the correct brightness: The sighting was the farthest ever made of Halley's, named for English astronomer Edmond Halley, first to recognize it as one traveling through the inner solar system every 76 years. He correctly predicted its reappearance in 1758 but did not live to see it. Its spectacular appearance in 1910 resulted from a favorable arrangement of Sun, Earth, and comet that would not occur on this visit. (W Post, Oct 21/82, D-1)
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