A rare manuscript about eclipses just sold for $255,000 at auction. Its author was the man who discovered the most famous comet.

• Edmond Halley discovered that a certain comet, which now has his name, returns every 76 years.
• Two of his papers on eclipses recently sold at auction for about $255,000.
• It's very rare for Halley's scientific papers to appear in auctions.

Edmond Halley is famous for predicting the period of Halley's comet in the early 1700s, but comets weren't his only interest.