Evidence for the nucleus rotation in streamer patterns of Comet Halley's dust tail

A generalized Finson-Probstein formalism was used to analyse the streamer patterns in the dust tail of Comet Halley as observed between 22 February and 11 March, 1986. A periodic appearance of a pattern of double streamers was found in the dust tail, indicating a time interval in the emission of this structures of about 6.5 days, if interpreted as synchrones. The time interval between the emission of the two components of each double streamer is about 2.5 days. The results are discussed with respect to the rotation of Halley's nucleus.This work is based on observations made at the European Southern Observatory by ESO staff personal and by observers of the Astronomical Institute of the Ruhr-University, Bochum. We, furthermore, used an exposure made at the U.K. Schmidt telescope at Siding Spring, Australia, operated by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, and published by Sekanina and Larson (1986).