On the Meteors of 13th November. 407 
One reason probably, why so many persons referred the radiant 
point to the zenith, is that most persons began their observations when 
the constellation Leo was near the meridian; and we have already 
adverted to the liability of observers to consider points of great alti- 
tude as nearer the zenith than they really are, on account of the dif- 
ficulty of looking directly upwards. Inthe Gulf of Mexico, Capt. 
Parker, saw the radiant point at 3 or 4 o’clock in the northeast, at 
an altitude of 45°; and Capt. Seymour, of the De Witt Clinton, 
descending the Hudson river, saw the radiant point at an altitude 
which he judged to be about 45°'S. E.* 
7. If the apparent radiant point from which the meteors sical 
was merely the effect of perspective, no inference could be made 
respecting the height of the region from which they came; as the 
same apparent convergence of the distant parts of parallel lines would 
be presented, whether the lines were one mile or a thousand miles in 
length. Such an apparent convergence, or radiation, in itself, merely 
proves that the lines are nearly or entirely parallel. But if the me- 
teors came from a region of space, being attracted towards the earth 
by gravity, in lines directed towards the center of the earth, and 
therefore within a moderate space parallel to each other, then the 
convergence of such lines to a focus would indicate the position of 
that focus in the heavens; and this position being accurately noted 
by different observers, at places remote from each other on the sur- 
face of the earth, the height of the place whence the meteors origi- 
nated, can be determined, unless that height be too great to exhibit 
any parallax. In the present instance this does not appear to be the 
ease; for the radiant point as observed by Dr. Aiken, at Emmitts- 
burg, and by the writer, at New Haven, had a parallax of about 3° 
40’ in declination. 
It is to be remarked that, although the several observers who fixed 
the position of the radiant among the stars agreed in placing it in the 
constellation Leo, yet the distant observers did not assign it to the 
same part of Leo. At New Haven, it appeared a little to the west- 
ward of Gamma Leonis having a declination of 219. At Emmitts- 
burg, it was north and west of the same star, with a declination of 
5, a very large meteor burst in the south-east, and ae origin to a luminous mg 
which remained visible from 30 to 40 minutes. We had no appearance of ms & 
rora borealis, nor can I learn that any of the fire balls were seen to asceu 
* Mr. Twining. 
