The 19th century was a great time for sky watchers.
Three years later, another dramatic comet appeared in the sky.
The tail also obscured the Suns rays during the day.
Great Comet of 1861, also known as C/1861 J1 or comet Tebbutt.
Tebbutt checked his celestial charts but found no nebula listed in the position.
He guessed it must be a comet but he could see no tail.
Tebbutt sent off a letter to the Rev.
This letter was published in the paper on 25 May 1861, the young farmers 27th birthday.
In those days, communication between Australia and the rest of world was slow.
Before news of the discovery could reach the northern hemisphere, the comet itself appeared in northern skies.
The same day, Samuel Elliott Hoskins, a doctor from Guernsey, observed:
At 9.p.m.
a large luminous disc surrounded by a nebulous haze became visible in the N.W.
As summer approached and the days lengthened, there was noticed a strange appearance in the sky.
The tail of the comet assumed a large nebulous disc-like appearance about a quarter of a circle wide.
On July 1 and 2, the tail was measured 118 wide.
As the comet moved away from the earth, the tail became long covering nearly half the sky.
In 1881, Tebbutt discovered yet another comet.
John Tebbutt was elected first president of a branch of the British Astronomical Association which was established at Sydney.
He retired from systematic astronomical work at the age of seventy in 1904.
John Tebbutt died in 1916.
He was commemorated on the reverse side of the Australian one hundred-dollar note.
