October 13

On the evening of the 13th in 1892, Edward Emerson Barnard discovered comet D/1892 T1 (Barnard 3). By itself that is not a particularly interesting event, particularly for Barnard, who had already discovered thirteen other comets, the first in 1881. So, what’s the big deal about him finding another one? What makes Barnard 3 a little different is that it is the first comet to be discovered using photographic evidence. In 1916, Barnard would discover Barnard’s Star, which is a low mass star in the Ophiuchus constellation. In the 1970s, this star was the ambitious target of the British Interplanetary Society’s Project Daedalus.