[BAA Comets] Alcock's possible prediscovery of C/Pererya

[Nick James]

David,

> I read that G. E. D. Alcock saw a pencil-thin beam of light in the morning twilight in September 1963, just a few days before the sungrazing Comet Pererya was discovered. It seems very likely that what he saw was the tail of the comet, but does anyone have more information about this? Was the "beam" seen naked eye or through binoculars?
> Any information would be greatly appreciated.
This is written up in "Under an English Heaven" by Kay Williams. On p156 
it says: "Four months later, in mid-September he just missed being able 
to claim a fourth discovery: 'In the brightening dawn I saw a faint, 
long, straight beam of light pointing away from the sun at an angle to 
the horizon of less than ten degrees. It was badly placed in our part of 
the world and I thought that it must be the headlight of a distant car'".

I've searched the digital JBAA archive and the first mention of Pereyra 
(1963e) is JBAA 1964,74 p338 but no reference to Alcock.

Alcock's observation is mentioned in Martin Mobberley's paper "Tails of 
the twentieth Century", JBAA 110,4,p187 with a reference to Williams' 
book but no further info.

Jonathan Shanklin mentions it again in JBAA 114,1 p46 when he says: "In 
a 1977 letter George depicted a thin pencil beam low in the sky on 1963 
September 12, questioning whether it might have been the comet 
discovered by Pereyra in Argentina two days later".

So, I guess the objective would be to find the 1977 letter...

Nick.