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Ordinary Meeting, December 10th, 1872. 



J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D, F.RS., &c., President, in 



the Chair. 



" Observations of the Meteoric Shower of November 

 27th, 1872." 



1._By E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S. 

 On the 27th November last, at Douglas, in the Isle of 

 Man, my attention was called by an inmate of my house to 

 numerous meteors in the sky. On going out of doors 

 about 7.45 p.m., they were seen radiating from a point 

 in Andromeda and falling in all directions towards the 

 horizon, some not proceeding far down before they dis- 

 appeared, whilst others travelled to a much greater 

 distance. The sky was perfectly clear for three hours, 

 during which time I observed them, and they ap- 

 peared in all directions to be equally numerous except 

 during the last hour. Some were as large as a star of 

 the first magnitude and others were only just perceptible. 

 Nearly all of them appeared to leave tails in their course, 

 which were generally straight, but some of them were 

 curled. In colour most of them were white or yellowish 

 white, but some of the larger ones were of a reddish tinge. 

 At about 7.45 p.m. six were noticed at one time. At 8.45, 

 on looking at about a quarter of the space of the heavens, 

 towards the west, I counted during a minute 21, 11, 24, 

 and 12 respectively. This would give an average of 17 per 

 minute; assuming that the other three portions of the 

 heavens afforded as many, and to me the meteors appeared 

 to be about equally dispersed, so there would be probably 

 about 68 per minute during the two first hours I observed 



pEOCBEDiJfas— Lit. & Phil. Soc. — Vol, XII.— No. 4.— Session 1872-3. 



