ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 349 



from that portion of the heavens directly above the constellation 

 Leo. . . . Before I had finished observing, I saw meteors 

 at the rate of considerably more than 2,500 per hour ! In fact, 

 from half-past twelve to half-past one, it was impossible to count 

 them, though two of us endeavored to do so. 



"As a gross approximation only, it maybe stated that about 

 one o'clock the stars fell at the rate of 2,550 per hour. 



"Of the whole of these thousands of shooting stars which I 

 must have witnessed last niglit, only five issued from various por- 

 tions of the heavens, the rest all radiated from the constellation 

 Leo. 



"The weather was fortunately clear, but a strong wind was 

 blowing, which became quite boisterous during the most brilliant 

 period of the phe4>omenon. It was doubtless a storm-wind, for I 

 noticed tlie reflection or radiations of several flashes of lightning 

 from below the N.W. and N.N.E. horizon, namely, one flash at 

 twenty minutes past nine, two flashes about five minutes past ten, 

 one flash at half-past ten in the N. , one flash at ten minutes to eleven, 

 and one flash at one o'clock. I should like to be sure that these 

 electric radiations emanated from a storm below the Northern ho- 

 rizon, or whether they must be considered identical with the lumi- 

 nous radiations formerly noticed in "Cosmos" (1852 and 1853), 

 as accompanying, sometimes, the phenomenon of shooting stars." 



IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATION. 



Prof. Rutherford, at the last meeting of the National Academy, 

 exhibited photographs of his inventions. He had seen, in May, 

 1865, that he could never succeed in taking photographs with the 

 achromatic objective ; the visual and actinic focus not colliding, 

 and it being impossible to correct the plate except very near to the 

 centre of the field. Tremors in the moist atmosphere of New York 

 city increased his difiiculties, injuring silvered mirrors so that it 

 was necessary to coat them every two or three days. In 18G3 he 

 had decided that it was useless to attempt a telescope which should 

 bring the visual and actinic foci to one plane ; it would have been 

 a useless compromise, sacrificing the best qualities of both ; and, 

 after many experiments, he had succeeded in producing a photo- 

 graphic telescope, useless for vision, but giving excellent results. 

 In this, the red, yellow, and green rays, which retard action, are 

 dissipated. The image is taken on a screen of collodion. He had 

 taken plates of the sun and moon ; but the chief value of his work 

 was in its stellar application. He wished to show that something 

 was always lost in methods purely mechanical, the human eye 

 having a power of adaptation not conferred on any lens. Thus a 

 finder of four and a half inches would give to the eye what the 

 eleven and a half inch lens could not report. The atmosphere is 

 a great disturber. All observers know what it is to have stars 

 jump double their own distance on the field. Photography locates 

 exac;tly. Of the moon it furnishes a fine map, to be filled in by ac- 

 curate observation afterwards. He showed how the eiTors occa- 

 sioned by reducing the curves in the heavens to a plane surface 

 30 



