ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 373 



and the epoch at which it must have quitted a sphere having a radius 

 of one parallactic unit (or the distance of a star whose annual parallax 

 equals one second) must have been no less than 373,397.7 years ante- 

 cedent to that of its arrival at its perihelion in 1847. This interesting- 

 body would appear, from M. Petit's calculations, to have fallen into 

 the North Sea near the Belgian coast. Report of Council of London 

 Astronomical Society. 



VAKIOUS METEORS. 



A LETTER from Mr. James Richardson, dated off Jerbah, Jan. 25, is 

 published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, in which he men- 

 tions an " astronomical phenomenon which terrified or arrested the 

 attention of the inhabitants of the whole of this coast some t\vo months 

 ago. This was the fall of a shower of aerolites, with a brilliant 

 stream of light accompanying them, and which extended from Tunis 

 to Tripoli, some of the stones falling in the latter city. The fall of 

 these aerolites was followed by the severest or coldest winter which 

 the inhabitants of Tunis and Tripoli have experienced for many 

 years." 



A brilliant meteor of the apparent size of the full moon was seen at 

 Brooklyn, N. Y., on Nov. 2i, at 5.35 p. M. It was in the west, and 

 moved very slowly in a nearly horizontal line from north to south. 

 It was of a fire-red color, and remained in sight while traversing a 

 path of 70 in length. 



A brilliant meteor was seen in the northern sky at New Haven, on 

 June 16, while the sun was shining in full strength about an hour be- 

 fore its setting. It must have been of extraordinary brilliancy. 



OCCULTATIOXS OF STARS IN 1850. 



MR. W. C. BOND, in a letter in the Astronomical Journal, No. 14, 

 gives notices of the following occultations of stars observed at the 

 Cambridge Observatory during the present year. Of Aldebaran on 

 Jan. 23 and April 15, of Jupiter and his satellites on Feb. 26, and of 

 Regulus. The occultation of Jupiter presented some interesting facts. 

 At the immersion, one of the largest of the lunar mountains appeared 

 projected upon the disk of the planet. A beautiful effect was produced 

 at the emersion by the very narrow' unilluminated strip of the moon's 

 surface which was interposed between the planet and the bright border 

 of the moon. The visible portions of the two bodies were within 

 about 30" of each other, but separated by the intense blackness of the 

 unilluminated edge of the moon, from behind which the planet and his 

 satellites were emerging. The third satellite, as seen through the 23- 

 foot equatorial, was more brilliant than usual, whilst the second ap- 

 peared of a dull color and small. During its previous passage across 

 the disk of Jupiter, this satellite was seen as a dusky elongation of its 

 shadow, but as it ran along on a dark belt, it could not be distinctly 

 recognized. 



Mr. Mitchell, of Nantucket, in a notice of the occupation of Jupiter, 



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