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METEORIC ASTRONOMY. 
One often hears the remark that ‘‘ Astronomy would be 
more popular if the instruments associated with it were less 
costly.’’ This hindrance is frequently overcome by observers 
making their own equipment; but perhaps the fact that some 
branches of this fascinating pursuit require no outlay at all, 
is almost universally overlooked. As an example of a fine 
opening for really earnest endeavour, let us consider for a few 
moments the claims of Meteoric Astronomy. 
Standing out in the open on any clear moonless night, 
one has not long to wait before witnessing one of the most 
impressive sights the Heavens can offer—the passing of a 
‘‘Shooting Star.’’. It is now well-known that these are dark 
bodies, often quite tiny, coursing round the sun in elliptical 
orbits; which, encountering the earth on her somewhat 
similar journey, dash into our atmosphere with great, though 
varying, velocity, and friction renders them incandescent and 
visible. Sometimes many of these apparitions are seen during 
a single evening, and a large proportion of these may seem 
to radiate from one point or area in the sky. If that area 
(‘‘ Radiant Point’’ it is called), lies, say, in the constellation 
Perseus, we should speak of the display as a shower of 
“‘Perseid Meteors’’ or “‘ Perseids’’; if in Leo, as ‘‘ Leonids”’ ; 
and so on. Many showers are known, and their arrival on 
definite dates can be anticipated with reasonable confidence. 
A close connection between Meteor showers and some well- 
known periodic Comets has been traced. 
Foremost amongst the pioneers in this field of research, 
is Mr. W F. Denning, of Bristol, and he has carried us 
far on the way towards a full interpretation of Meteoric 
Phenomena; but Mr. Denning would be the first to tell us 
that more helpers are needed, and that much remains to 
be done before the riddle of the Shooting Star is solved. 
A few years ago, it was thought that the photographic 
camera was going to register every ‘‘trail’’ so accurately, 
that the eye-observer would no longer be wanted; but 
we are learning that even with the most rapid lenses, and 
plates of extreme sensitiveness, myriads of these ‘‘streaks 
of light’’ flash past unrecorded. Now, a man who watches 
the flight of even one of these transient phenomena, and holds 
a straight stick along the line the light traversed, and notes 
the time and the stars near the beginning and end of its path 
in the sky, and also states whether the movement appeared 
fast or slow, and estimates the brilliance of the apparition, 
has given us part of the Life-History (unique in its way) of 
a member of the Solar System captured by our mother-earth 
for good and all. 
