;j 



330 Shooting Stars of August, 1839. 



a horizontal direction, directly west from the point of diver- 

 gence.* 



" Professor Smith requests me to say that he saw 23 meteors 

 in N. E. and E. between 9h. 30m. and 10 P. M. and 9 or 10 after 

 10 o'clock. The point or rather space of divergence he places 

 near Algenih in the constellation Perseus. 



3. New York City.— Mr. Charles Baldwin writes me as fol- 

 lows : — " About 9 P. M. of the lOtli Aug., I saw several meteors in 

 quick succession ; and walking on, I met a friend who had been 

 abroad for about an hour previous, during which time he had 

 counted upwards of 40 meteors. Between that time and half 

 past 10, I observed for about 30 to 45 minutes ; my field of view 

 being from the N. by way of the E. to the S. E. In that time 

 I counted 36 meteors, many of which left long luminous trains 

 "behind them. They moved almost universally in a southern di- 



rection." 



4 Niacrara, N. Y.— Mr. W. C. Redfield of New York, has 

 favored me with the following memorandum. " On the evening 

 of the 10th of August, 1839, ahout 9 o'clock, being at Niagara 

 Falls, my attention was arrested by several brilliant shooting stars 

 which successively crossed the heavens. This led me to recol- 

 lect that it was one of the periods at which their recurrence was 

 expected, and on giving my attention for a part of the time be- 

 tween 9 and half past 10, I saw many of these meteors, differing 

 from each other in brilliancy and apparent magnitude, but all pas- 

 sing in a southerly direction. One of great brilliancy passed to 

 the west of south, and was lost to me behind the roof of the ho- 

 tel. My estimate of the probable numb 

 constant observation, was an average of one per minute ; but in 

 one instance three or four were seen in less than a minute.' 



5, Philadelphia, Pa.— Mr. Azariah Smith, Jr., has published 

 in the " Public Ledger/' an account of the observations made by 

 him at Philadelphia, of which the following is an abstract. The 

 number of meteors seen between lOh. P. M. of the 9th and 1 A. 

 M. of the lOth, by one observer watching only half the time, 

 was about 50. The position was unfavorable, viz. in the street, 



* Mr. Knox has minutely described the apparent position of this lueleor, which 

 was probably identical with the brilliant one we saw about the same lime, but 

 unfortunately we did not fix its place with sufficient precision, to enable us to de- 

 termine its altitude, size, &c. . 



