Halley's Comet
Sir: May I thank the various readers who have so splendidly solved the riddle about Halley's Comet which I recently posed in the Diary (20 September). The most suc- cinct version came from Mr Adam Perkins of the Royal Greenwich Observatory (soon shamefully to be axed by Mrs T) who points out that the interval between the returns of Halley is not a regular 76 years but has varied between 74 and 79 years. This has to do with the influence of the great planet Jupiter whose gravitation can significantly alter the path of the Comet. Halley himself recognised that this would be so. The years of the return to the Sun from the time of Hastings have been: 1066, 1145, 1222, 1301, 1378, 1456, 1531, 1607, 1682, 1759, 1835, 1910 and 1986.
Earlier this year, after I had been much moved by several sightings of the Comet, I managed to find only one person among all my friends and acquaintances who had seen it both in 1910 and 1986. This was Pamela, Lady Glenconner, who happens to be the aunt of your editorial predeces- sor. She was shown the Comet in 1910 in Wolverhampton by her father, the late Sir Richard Paget, and saw it again this year in the West Indies in the company of Mr and Mrs Michael Jagger.
May I just also correct my reference the week before last to the distinguished appearance of the just-retired Dean of Salisbury. Sydney Evans's hair would more appropriately have been described as 'sil- ver' rather than 'white'.
Christopher Booker
The Old Shop, Lamyatt, Shepton Mallet, Somerset
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