Halley's Comet appears once every 76 years, hence comet memorabilia is very hard to find. These pages show some of our collection. In 1985 I wrote the book "Halley's Comet - Memories of 1910". The book is now out of print and occasionally available from Amazon's used books or on eBay. It was designed as a scrapbook of my comet memorabilia collection from 1910 and before. It sold out quickly. Most people who saw Halley's comet in 1986 were disappointed with the comet's showing. We were not as fortunate as the folks living in the 1800s when it came to seeing comets. In 1811 there was a beautiful comet with a tail 100,000,000 miles long. It was called the Great Comet of 1811 and was visible for 17 months. In 1843 a comet appeared in the sky with a tail twice as long as that of the Great Comet of 1811. Abraham Lincoln commented on the comet of 1858 called Donati's Comet. It appeared during the Lincoln - Douglas debates. The civil war soldiers saw the comet of 1861 that had 6 or more tails. In 1874 Coggin's Comet appeared in the skies and in 1882 a comet appeared that was visible for 4 months.

Halley's Comet was named for Sir Edmund Halley, the royal astronomer. In 1682 Halley saw a comet in the sky. He investigated previous comet appearances (notably those of 1531 and 1607) and determined that the comet of 1682 was the same comet that had returned. It was on an eliptical orbit of our sun. Halley predicted that it would return again in 1758. When it did return in 1758, it received its name "Halley's Comet". Its orbit was almost exactly 76 years. A comet is a dirty snowball that orbits the sun. As it approaches the sun, it heats up and a tail appears, streaking away from the comet's head. The tail always points away from the sun.

A star map from 1757 showing the path of Halley's comet.

The newest addition to my collection - This is a party favor for a 1910 Halley's Comet party. A stick was attached to the center, just under the comet's head, and the whole piece could be waved in the air. It shows the comet trying to swallow the Earth and then breaking apart after the attempt. The comet piece is brightly colored lithography on heavy card stock. It also has 2 crepe paper covered stars hanging from it. The overall size is 16 inches wide and 6 inches tall. The stick is almost 30 inches long and has been removed to make the piece framable. Rather incredible that it survived all these years.

In 1835, Halley's Comet was greeted by a new jewelry style in celebration of the Comet. These many varied types of pins had a head and a tail to resemble the comet. They all have a similar, simple pin on the back to attach it. All are gold (carat can vary) and have a semiprecious stone or pearl in the head. These pieces from our collection are all from 1835. The size of the pin varies from 1.25 inches to 1.75 inches.

A rare, English, cut steel comet and tortoise shell hair slip or hair comb that was made in 1835. Every piece of steel is cut and polished and fit into frame of the piece.	Another group of 1835 comet pins.

An 18kt gold and diamond comet pin made in 1986.

An 1858 stereo photograph of Donati's Comet. Photographers tried to capture a likeness of Donati's Comet and produced this view, most likely with darkroom help. An even rarer type of stereoview was the "Surprise Tissue" view created in France. These showed a daylight view when illuminated from the front and a night time view when lit from the back.

Surprise Tissue Stereoviews of Donati's Comet of 1858