In 1910, between the first of March and the middle of May, Hawai‘i was treated to the spectacular display of Halley’s Comet. Filled with excitement, residents rushed to the beaches and to high points in the Islands to view the glowing comet silhouetted against the night sky, its solid head surrounded by a nebulous luminescent cloud and trailing a curved vapor tail.

Comet, from the Greek, simply means “long-haired star.” But the ancients believed a comet was the harbinger of good or evil. One was reported at the fall of Jerusalem in 66 B.C. A comet appeared at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Then in 1708, Edmond A. Halley, a brilliant British astronomer, assembled all data and calculated that it was the same celestial body that appeared every seventy-six years.

Halley’s Comet faithfully reappeared in 1910, and Hawai‘i was considered to be one of the best viewing spots on Earth. Travelers from around the world came to witness it. An observatory was built for the occasion at Kaimuki. The ancient beliefs resurfaced, and some Hawai‘i residents sold all their worldly goods and prepared for the end of the world.

Fortunately, superstition once again proved wrong. In 1986, Halley’s Comet returned and was again visible in Hawaiian skies.

By Helen G. Chapin