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The celestial object we call Halley’s Comet is a bright comet that returns to Earth approximately every 76 years. The last visitation was in 1986. I was disappointed. It seems when Halley’s Comet should have been brightest, it was on the opposite side of the Sun, and therefore invisible to us. The most I ever saw of it was just a smudge on a telescope lens. A friend of mine at the time suggested we all wait 76 more years to see its next visitation, but I would have to live to the age of 103 and still have eyesight good enough to see it. Chances of that happening are pretty small, I think.
We call it Halley’s Comet because astronomer Edmond Halley, in the year 1705, realized that the comet visitations of 1531, 1607, and 1682 were all the same comet. Once the comet’s periodicity was established, it was then possible to check historical records in years corresponding to earlier visitations to see if anyone noticed it. It turns out that one of these visitations coincided with William the Conquerer’s conquest of England in 1066, and the assassination of King Harold. The visitation was depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, sewn by Queen Mathilde (William’s wife) and her ladies. In Europe of that time, comets were seen as evil omens associated with war, famine, and the death of kings. Two of those things happened in England in 1066.
It turns out that an elderly monk named Eilmer of Malmesbury was one who observed the comet of 1066, but also realized that he had seen the same comet before, in the year 989. So Eilmer was actually the first to recognize that this comet’s visitation was periodic, more than 6 centuries before Halley figured it out. Justly, Halley’s Comet should be named after Eilmer, but I figure that’s unlikely to happen.
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Top Comments (January 22-23, 2026):
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