Halley.

As Google reminded me first thing this morning, today marks the 355th anniversary of the Birth of Edmond Halley - Fellow of the Royal Society, second Astronomer Royal, antiquarian, Professor of geometry, meteorologist and temporary Captain of the Royal Navy. Then I remembered that as an old amateur astronomer, I still had my old observations of the comet that would come to bear his name that I had first made around this time of year, somewhere in the proverbial attic.

In 1705, Halley used the Laws of Gravitation, as outlined by his friend Sir Isaac Newton, to predict that a bright comet observed in 1531, 1607 and 1682 would return in 1758; it was recovered on Christmas Day of that year and named in his honour the following year, returning like clockwork every 76 years - unfortunately Halley never got to see his work confirmed, he died in 1742.

On a chilly November evening twenty-six-years-and-one-day ago, I made this observation of the comet from my old back garden, low over the next street's rooftops. Using the 10X50 binoculars I still use today, I sketched the comet as a magnitude 8 smudge, caught between the stars Iota and Tau Tauri at approximately 2025 Universal Time, some three months before perihelion.

In the end I made 55 separate observations before saying goodbye to Comet Halley on the 15th May 1986, and I will be 92 when it returns.