METEORS. 



491 



>.! iii zenith and the enst, but cloudy in 

 Many meteors passed through the con- 

 stollution Ursa Major. 



6h. 54m 1,301 



From the la*t-namcd hour until sunrise, a few 

 brilliant meteors were seen, which are not in- 

 rlud.-d in the list. It appears from an exami- 



; of the table that the maximum of fre- 

 quency occurred at 4" 31 A. M. mean time, and 

 tlu- rate of fall was 47 a minute. Occasionally 

 6 or 8 would fall simultaneously ; but, as a gen- 

 eral rule, they appeared in groups of 2 or 3 at 

 a time. The radiant point was in the constel- 

 lation Leo, R. A. 10", andD. about 25 N. The 

 time of ilight of a few was determined by mag- 

 netic registration on the chronograph. It va- 

 ried from one-tenth to five-tenths of a second. 

 A number of very brilliant meteors were seen, 

 BOfpasdng Sirios in splendor, and looking very 

 iiiui-h like sky-rockets. One of the most curious 

 phenomena was the continuance of the train 

 after the meteor had disappeared. In one case, 

 IV. if. lIoiiLrli c.-t limited tho time as 65 seconds, 

 during which the train remained visible, and in 

 a number of cases it exceeded 30 seconds. The 

 color of the brighter ones was light blue, white, 

 and orange. 



At New Haven, Ct., the shower was observed 

 by two scientific parties, one for parallax and 

 the other for numbers visible. The observa- 

 tions for parallax have not yet been compared 

 and reduced, but the following numbers were 

 seen by individuals of the second company from 

 l k 10 ra to 5" : 813, 888, 635, 913, 790, 737, 792, 

 600, 408 ; average 781. Of course, more or less 

 time in the height of the shower was lost by 



one. Prof. II. A. Newton, author of 

 the article in the American Journal, says, 

 that allowing for the before-mentioned cause, 

 and for cloudiness, and for the hour from 6 to 

 i; \. M., it is reasonable to assume that the num- 

 ber for one person for the five hours between 

 1* and 6" would be at least 900. This would 

 give about 5,000 for the total number visible in 

 the moonlight. The moon, however, must have 



aled one-half or three-fourths of the whole 

 number visible. But for that cause 10,000 or 

 even 20,000 might have been seen. The meteors 

 seen at New Haven, as everywhere else, ap- 

 peared to emanate from the constellation Leo. 

 Prof. Twining, who had observed with great 



core and discussed the remarkable meteoric 



shower of Is:;:;, malv- the 1'olloH ing cotiipur- 



i.-oii between the two events: 



r half-past three o'clock on tho morninj? of the 

 IHli, 1 did not a '.fain ol.s.-rv.- tin- rin-t.-ira until five 

 iiYliii-k, and, conai'ijm-ntly not until th-ar freqtMncj 

 hod become very much IeM than in tin: interval. Still 

 they were, even then, more numerous than I had wit- 

 nessed Hince Is:;:;. In from 5 h to 5 h 10 I counted 

 not less than lift v that were conformable, and from 

 that to : BS">. 50 mort nuking 100 (ami probably 

 two additional) in 22. Afterward from 5>i 40 m to 

 6 h 45 ni . there were seen but 13, and in the following 

 five minutes, to 5 h 50, only 4. The meteors at five 

 o'cock, compared with those at three o'clock, had no 

 observed diili/renee of magnitude, or flight, or dura- 

 tion of trains. From these and the more ext 

 observations of others, made publie at N.-v, 

 and elsewhere, it appears obvious that thctcale of this 

 display, compared with what was observed by myself 

 and a multitude of others in 1838, was not at a rough 

 estimate more than about one-fifth. This estimate 

 has respect to each of the three following particulars, 

 viz. : the frequency of the meteors protracted through 

 a long time ; the massive character and brilliancy of 

 the longest and largest ; and the duration of the main 

 body or shower. In respect also of the entire aggre- 

 gate of numbers the disparity would appear much 

 greater still. In 1833 there were not less than five 

 hours of full development ; while tho same this year 

 was but a single hour. Again, in 1833, the frequency, 

 prevailing through two hours or more, was estimated 

 by competent observers from 10,000 an hour to 

 several times that number. Ten thousand an hour 

 was, no doubt, an over-cautious estimate ; while the 

 aggregate number of 200.000 in seven hours assigned 

 by Professor Olmstead, although at the other extreme, 

 appeared finally so far as my own observations and 

 investigations at the time could determine-^very much 

 nearer to the truth. Again there were, in this dis- 

 play of 1833, occasional meteors which surpassed, 

 almost immeasurably, any August or November 

 meteors seen in the United States since that occur- 

 rence. One such occasional meteor was witnessed by 

 myself, and described at the time ; and I saw in tho 

 northeast, not long before sunrise, more than one so 

 brilliant and large as to show a well-defined circular 

 and fiery disk through the dense glow of twilight 

 which made the train invisible. By a lew observers, 

 meteors were seen in the zenith after the sun had 

 risen. 



Mr. Kingston. Director of tho Magnetic Ob- 

 servatory at Toronto, Canada, has prepared the 

 following table from the reports of four ob- 

 servers : 

 Abstract of the number of shooting-stars seen at th 



Magnetic Observatory, at Toronto, November 14, 



1865. 



At Haverford, Pa., Prof. Samuel J. Gum- 

 mere, of Hamford College, reports about 1,000 



