ORIGIN OF LUMINOUS METEOR TRAINS 



*93 



Fig. 2. Meteor Train seen at Aberdeen Observatory, England. Observed 

 on November 14, 1866, described as a pale yellow band of light about half the diam- 

 eter of the moon. A at 2 :41 a.m., B at 2 :43 a.m., G at 2 :45 a.m. (The largest 

 star in the cluster is Aldebaran.) 



33^ years. The showers of 1833 and 1866-7-8 produced many persist- 

 ent trains. The Leonid shower in 1901 was very meagre as compared 

 with those of 1833 and 1866, yet a number of persistent trains were 

 observed at that time, which was the date of the last meeting of the 

 earth and that part of the orbit of the Leonid meteor swarm where the 

 meteoric masses are clustered most thickly. 



The Perseid meteors appearing about the eleventh or twelfth of 

 August are far more evenly distributed along in the track of their orbit 

 than the Leonid meteors and hence there is no recurrent period when 

 they are particularly abundant. Both the Leonids and Perseids are very 



