The Advocate-Messenger from Danville, Kentucky • Page 2

TUESDAY. DECEMBER 11, 1973 PACK TWO DANVILI.K AD IK ATK-M ESSKNC R. DANVILLE. KENTUCKY Comets Long egarded As Sigh Of Foreboding am singing "The Lord's Prayer," while his wife, Mrs. Paula Owens played the piano.

PERFORM AT PTA MEETING Performing "The Lord's Prayer" in deaf signs at a meeting of the Bate Junior High School PTA Monday night were Bate students, from left: Mel Camenisch, Elizabeth Caldwell, Sam Reid, Jimmy Downey, Kim Johnson, Robin Barnes, Teresa Tate and Rodney Croushorn. These are among the 23 students who have been learning sign language for six weeks from Mrs. Billie D. Stallard during her lunch hours in the first such class in the Danville schools. Monday night's program also included a musical by the school band, under the direction of Bill Owens, who also accompanied the students in Retired Teachers To Hear Speaker that could intercept the head or tail of the comet, and make close-up studies, or even seize some comet material, an idea that Whipple had proposed more than a decade ago.

But just such a plan to go to a comet is being considered by NASA now, perhaps in a few years. It could resolve many of the mysteries about contets. Around the world, telescopes on the ground will peek at comet Kohoutek for the next few months. Out in space, three astronauts aboard Skylab likely will have the most spectacular view, high above the earth's interfering blanket of air. They will use an array of instruments, including a special ultraviolet camera to see the hydrogen cloud around the comet.

They can, also, witness sudden changes in the shape of the comet or its tail and make special observations then. Mariner 10, now en route to Venus and later to Mercury, will be able to take pictures from a different angle than from earth. Stereoscopic comparison of the two views would give, for the first time, a three-dimensional picture of the shape of the comet. Other findings are expected from the Pioneer spacecraft that just went beyond Jupiter; from the satellites Copernicus and Orbiting Solar Observatory from a small barrage of sounding rockets rising from White Sands, N.M.; from C141 Airborne Infrared Observatory and from balloons measuring far-infrared heat waves. A special observatory has been set up on South Baldy Mountain near Socorro, N.M.

Comet Kohoutek is tugging the interest of ordinary citizens as well as astronomers, professional or amateur. Sales of telescopes are reported increased. If you are interested, look now or plan to live another years. Comet Kohoutek likely won't be back before then. In Hospital Mrs.

Freda Cash, 1011 Queen Street, is a patient at St. Mary and Elizabeth Hospital in Louisville. She was taken there Sunday and is reported in serious condition. HAVE WRITTEN The Danville-Boyle County Retired Teachers Association will meet at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Danville High School Cafeteria.

Mrs. Margaret Weatherell, state president of the Kentucky Retired Teachers, Association, Host Shower Mrs. Billy Wilson and Mrs. Robert Davenport were co-hostesses for a linen shower Tuesday night at Mrs. Davenport's home in Streamland honoring Miss Vicki Lynn Phillips, bride-elect of Mr.

Kirby Rozack. The wedding of Miss Phillips and Mr. Rozack is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 14, at the First Baptist Church, Broadway. The field editor of a welUuiown New York subsidy publishing firm "Tvill be in Lexington in January.

He will be interviewing local authors in a quest for finished manuscripts suitable for book publication. All subjects will be considered, including fiction and non-fiction, poetry, juveniles, religious books, etc If you have completed a bookJength manuscript (or nearly so) on any subject, and would like a professional appraisal (without cost or obligation), please write immediately describing your work and stating which part of the day (a.m.'or p.m.) you would prefer for appointment. Please mention your phone number. Vbu will promptly receive a confirmation for a definite time and Authors with completed manuscripts unable to appear may send them directly to us for a free reading and evaluation. We will also be glad to hear from those whose literary works are still in pro gresa.

Please address: Mr. John Barker CARLTON PRESS, INC. 84 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10011 Phone CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -Comets have been getting a bad rap.

They've long been regarded popularly as heralds of death and disaster, plagues, crop failure, earthquakes and similar unmerriments. Look to an article in Harper's Weekly magazine 116 years ago, on June 6, 1857: There were predictions, it said, that a comet that year would hit and maybe annihilate the earth. It also took note of some salesmen promoting "comet-proof suits of clothing," and that "a cometary life insurance company premiums payable in advancehas been created." A comet in 1668 was blamed for a lethal epidemic among cats in Westphalia, Germany, the magazine went on, and a comet in 1665 was pegged as causing a great epidemic in London that same year but with "no one, apparently, caring to settle the question why the malign influence of the comet should fall only upon London, not extending even to the neighboring towns and villages." And "a comet appeared in the year 590 to which was attributed a fearful epidemic which prevailed in that year, in the paroxysms of which people were seized with uncontrollable fits of sneezing, generally resulting in death. When anyone about this time sneezed, it became customary to say 'God bless from which, probably, proceeded a similar custom to this day prevalent upon the continent of Europe." "A comet which appeared in March 1402," Harper's continued, "was stated by the astrologers of that day to presage the death of John Galeas Visconti, an Italian prince. This gentleman, being a devout believer in astrologers and comets, duly ded no doubt of fright and thus, to the great delight of the astrologers, made their 'predictions come true." The defeat of the English at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 has been attributed by some to a comet harbinger of bad news.

But it must have looked different to William the Conqueror out of Normandy. He won. When the famous Halley's comet last appeared in 1910, there were widespread fears that it would destroy the earth, perhaps, because the earth would soon pass through its "fiery" tail, that oceans would boil, the whole world burn up. Seeking to allay such fears, a prominent astronomer of the day, Mary Proctor, wrote in a bylined story in the New York Times of May 8, 1910, that this was a deception, since ominous-looking comet tails are made of material so flimsy that we can see stars right through them. And there were alarms that noxious gases in the comet's tail would choke and kill humans by the millions when the earth intercepted the cometary tail.

It didn't happen. Comets perhaps gain 'their reputation for evil because some look like feathery stars, or funny stars with long tails, because they are strangers intruding into the orderly and familiar procession of our star constellations season by season, something out of place, something perhaps as puzzling and frightening as a total, darkening eclipse of the sun if people don't happen to know one is coming. But comets can leave calling cards, in the form of "shooting stars" or meteorites. These are the almost inifinitesimal specks of dust or dirt that a comet leaves behind when some of its substance is melted off by the sun. When the earth runs into the path of these "shooting stars," they flame in sudden death as brief streaks in the sky.

The comet Encke, which visits earth every three and one-third years, has been donating shooting stars for perhaps 1,000 years. Spectacular meteorite showers in 1789, 1933, and 1946 came from dust remnants of comet Biela, which spirt in two in 1846 on a vist near the sun, says Fred Whipple, a comet expert who recently retired as director of the Smithsonian Astrophysic-al Observatory here. Biela came back as twins in 1852, but then the pair disappeared and neither has been detected since. "The bones of Biela 's comet still float through space," Whipple observes. Some Soviet scientists believe that a comet weighing perhaps one million tons struck Siberia in 1908, causing a blast that felled trees for 30 miles in all directions, and knocking people 100 miles away off their feet.

Others, however, think a meteorite or some other phenomenon did all the damage. There is no 'danger that comet Kohoutek speeding toward us now is on collision course, says Brian Marsden of the Smithsonian Observatory. The closest any comet has ever come to earth aside from the possibility of the Siberian incident was IVi million miles, he says. In 1928, one comet came within four million miles, and a number have been within 10 million to 20 million. Kohoutek will stay a respectable 75 million miles from our turf.

And visible comets do not come by very often, considering that astronomers think there are 100 billion of them, or even more, roaming in a shell at the outer fringes of the solar system. Astronomers with their telescopes pick up a good number, but it is only once every few years, on the average, that one comes into good eyeball view. Orbits have been calculated for about 600 comets, and about 100 of these have come around at least twice, and some many more times, like Halley's comet and Encke, Marsden says. Halley's comet comes around about every 76 years, is due back in 1986, and very likely the early and assiduous sky watchers in China may have observed Halley's comet in, 467 B.C., or before, and certainly observed it in 239 B.C., Whipple says. What has excited astronomers so much about our temporarily resident comet is that Lubos Kohoutek, a Czech astronomer for whom it is named, detected it last March, nine months ago when it was still nearly half a billion miles away, but big enough to show up on a powerful telescope.

No comet that big and bright, heading for close passage of the sun, had ever been spotted so early. Very importantly, this provided a fair amount of "lead" time to plan for detailed examination of the comet. Enough that NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, set up a special coordinating "Operation Kohoutek" under direction of Stephen Ma-ran, astronomer at the Goddard Space Flight Center. There was not enough time to fit out a special space probe Rescue Runs Are Reported The Danville-Boyle County Rescue Squad made the following three rescue runs Monday, according to Capt. Delbert Allen: 3 a.m., Leslie Cunningham was taken from his home at 222 N.

Third St. to Ephraim McDowell Memorial Hospital. Squad James Preston and Walter Shoopman. 12:35 p.m. John Bender of the Fellowship Home was taken from the Danville Bowlarama to the local hospital and then to Lexington's Veterans Administration Hospital.

Squad J. D. Wilson and Joe Craig. 11 p.m.. Katheleen Russell was taken to the local hospital from her home at J78 Madison Ave.

Squad Walter Shoopman and Jimmy Hood. Rev. C. Hash Rev. Hash Resigns The Rev.

M. C. Hash has announced that he will resign as pastor of Killion Memorial Nazarene Church effective Dec. 30. He has held the post since Sept.

1, 1970, and he and his wife have lived in the church parsonage at 412 Perkins Ave. since then. The Rev. and Mrs. Hash plan to return to Louisville and give more time to studying and changing the pattern of their church work.

Rev. Hash has also received an endorsement from the Kentucky District Superintendent to hold weekend revivals and to supply any of the Louisville-area churches with pastors, while their own pastors are on vacations or leaves of absence. Burger Queen Will Open 50 th Store In 1963, two young Louisville men began a fast food restaurant franchise that has become one of Kentucky's largest fast food restaurant chains. Burger Queen will celebrate the Grand Opening of its 50th store Dec. 15.

The two men who started the hamburger chain on its way to becoming the nation's 64th largest food franchisor, were George Clark and Mick Gannon. Mr. Gannon has since retired, leaving the business in the hands of corporation president, George Clark. Burger Queen expects i top the, 114 million maik in sales in 1973. Mr.

Clark attributes Burger Queen's phenomenal growth to the fact that Burger Queen Restaurants went into the food business first and the franchise business second. Mr. Clark stated that, "We wanted to be sure we were serving customers the best food possible in a clean and cheerful atmosphere, before we started franchising our restaurants." Apparently Mr. Clark's philosophy worked, because at a time when many fast food operations are closing their doors, Burger Queen keeps opening new ones. Burger Queen has expanded store locations beyond Kentucky into Indiana and Tennessee.

The restaurant chain, which will be in many other states in the near future, has two locations in Danville. TODD MASON Production Manager Age 7 Coll Collect 792-3251 For Christmas, and for al) the good times to come. Deluxe Sony clock radio tells all. No wonder Sony calls the TFM-C770W deluxe FMAM clock radio. tells you the time to the second the day and the date.

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All area retired teachers are invited to attend. PTA Meeting Rescheduled A meeting of the Jennie Rogers Parent Teachers Association, which had been scheduled for Monday, Dec. 17, has been reset for Thursday, Dec. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the school gym.

The school's second grade classes under the direction of Mrs. Janet Nash, music director, will present a Christmas play. Second grade teachers are Mrs. Amelia Burton, Mrs. Phyllis Muncy and Miss Helen Purdom.

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