On the Dreaded Comet of the Present Year 1832: and on Comets in general

by Joseph Johann Littrow (Author), Richard E. Schmidt (Translator)  Format: Paperback
Published July 2026

For the first time in two centuries, available in an English language edition is an important work by J. J. Littrow, Director of the Observatory and Professor of Astronomy at the Imperial and Royal University of Vienna, on the Comet that some feared could destroy the World! Littrow described his work in this way in 1832:

"Regarding the comet, which is soon to collide with the Earth and thereby—I do not know exactly what kinds of misfortune it is supposed to cause—so many completely unfounded reports and concerns have spread in recent times that a correction of these can surely only be desirable. In particular, likely due to general interest, our periodicals have eagerly sought to address this topic, however foreign it may seem to most of their authors.

But there is no shortage of actual books on this subject either, of which the same can be said, perhaps with even greater justification. Some of them quite incorrectly regarded the so-called Encke’s Comet as the dangerous one; others confused Biela’s Comet, which alone can be dangerous to us, with Halley’s; still others had us wait until the year 1834; but in that year none of the comets known to us will appear, and so on. Yet almost all of them reassure us in a way that shows all too clearly that they themselves are not yet quite at ease, and that they all lack the knowledge and grounds that alone can provide reassurance built on conviction.

Readers will judge for themselves how I fare in this regard; I know only that my intentions are good, and that for this very reason I felt compelled to seize this opportunity to refresh the reader's acquaintance with these fascinating celestial bodies—and perhaps, if I am able, to add to that knowledge in certain respects. For I confess that it has always struck me as very strange that even those among us who lay a truly well-founded claim to a wealth of knowledge and to education in general, and who consider it a great disgrace not to know a great many of the most trivial and useless things, yet regard the greatest and most magnificent thing that surrounds us, nature and its eternal laws, inscribed in fiery letters upon the starry sky, not only consider it permissible but even regard it as a matter that is, as it were, self-evident and which, much like the study of heraldry or the Sanskrit language, may well be left to those who wish to waste their time and effort on pursuits of this sort.
Even apart from the intrinsic dignity of this subject, with which no other can be compared, it is eminently the one that grants the human mind both the noblest pursuit and the most powerful safeguard against prejudices of every kind: against this scourge of the human race, which, if we are to believe our history, always grows in direct proportion to the decline of our knowledge of the nature that surrounds us; it is He, finally, who is capable of awakening and strengthening our sense of the highest things that concern us, for truth and justice, which seems particularly necessary in our ailing times, where all-too-frequent signs of overexertion and its usual consequence, lethargy, have made a strong attachment to the good an urgent necessity. - I would be pleased if the following pages could contribute something to this great purpose."

Written with the general reader in. mind, and with extensive notes and introductory material by Richard E. Schmidt, this is a volume for lovers of astronomy, history and philosophy. "An intellectually stimulating read that engages both mind and heart" -- Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode, 1832