334 Shooting Stains of Avgiist, 1839. 



It will be noticed that its centre is about 40^ N. of the point in 

 the ecliptic, towards which at that time the earth's motion is di- 

 rected, but differs little from it in Right Ascension. It will also be 

 remarked, that the radiants of the meteors of August 9 and 10, 

 and of December 6 and 7, (1838j this Jour., vol. 35, p. 364,) are 

 in the same region of the heavens, and that at the former time 

 the earth is moving towards a point about 117^ from the place 

 towards which its motion is directed at the latter season. It 

 remains to be ascertained what is. the position of the radiant as 

 observed in southern latitudes ; if indeed meteors are found to 

 be unusually abundant there at this epoch^ which is somewhat 

 doubtful. 



Further Observations on the Meteors of Aug. 9ih and 10/A, 1S3S. 



1. Professor Barnard of the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa^ 

 in an article published in July^ 1838, in '' The Flag of the Un- 

 ion," at the place just named, invited the attention of the south- 

 ern public to the meteoric season expected during the August en- 

 suing. At the appointed time the weather was generally very 

 unfavorable for observation. In a communication to the above- 

 mentioned paper of Sept. 12th, 1838, Professor Barnard remarks, 

 *^ During the entire night of the 9th — 10th ult., the sky was heav- 

 ily overcast, the greatest rain of the month having occurred on the 

 evening of the preceding day. Clouds very much obscured the 

 heavens on several nights previous. Nevertheless, I observed an 

 miusual number of remarkably bright meteors, though nothing 

 which could be denominated a shower- The same was the result 

 of observations continued through the two succeeding nights, 

 though the heavens were then clearer. I have heard but from 

 two places in the south which enjoyed an unobscured sky on the 

 night of the 9th — 10th. In those places quite an unusual num- 

 ber of meteors was observed, amounting in one place to more 



r 



than fifty in half an hour before midnight." 



2. The Lend, and Ed. Phil. Mag. Oct. 1838, contains observa- 



tions by M : A. Q,uetelet at Brussels; and by Messrs. E. J. Cooper, 

 L. F. Wartmann and others at Geneva. (1.) At Brussels the 

 night of the 9th Aug. was overcast. Night of 10th partly clear; 

 three ( ?) observers saw from 9h. 15m. to 10, 16 meteors ; from 

 10—1 1, 29 ; from 11— Ilh. 50m., 39 ; afterwards cloudy. Night 

 of 11th, four observers saw from 9 — 10, 34 meteors ; from 10 

 11, 19; from 11— 12, 24; from 12—1, 32; from 1—2, 12; from 



