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

[Martin Mobberley]

> 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.<

Hello David,

Prior to Kay Williams' book, Alcock himself had a rough biography drafted.....
Just a loose collection of notes really. Most of the stuff is covered in Kay's
book. This is what Alcock wrote in his notes, exactly as he typed it:

'1963 had one further event on my 'calendar'. I missed another comet, this
time a bright one. In the brightening dawn of a mid-September morning 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. At the time I suspected it not
to be a comet, but the headlight of a distant car on the Norfolk Edge or
perhaps tilting upwards as the vehicle sped up the rise into Ely. Of course the
object was badly placed in our part of the world, and almost at the same time
this fine Sun-grazing comet was seen by the Argentinian astronomer by Pereyra,
where this fine object was a spectacular sight for several mornings in places in
the Southern Hemisphere. 1963 had certainly proved a year of incident.'


Martin