ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS. 



47 



ever, have been published during the past year, 

 _rard to the periodic comets of D' Arrest 

 !iii<l I>o Vico, both of which will return to 

 I'erihelion in 1877. The observations on the 

 Conner, together with the perturbations pro- 

 duced by Venus, the earth, Mur#, Jupiter, and 

 Saturn, have been discussed by M. Leveau, of 

 tlu- Paris Observatory. Leverrier's bulletin 

 International, of March 18, 1876, gives the 

 elements obtained by M. Leveau for the next 

 return of the comet, as follows: 



Time of perihelion passage ............. May 10, 1877. 



Longitude of perihelion ..................... 819* & 



Longitude of ascending node ............... 146 9 



I ncliiiatlon ................................. 16 48 



]:< -Mindly ............................... 0.6278 



Perihelion distance ......................... 1 .8181 



Semi-axis major ........................... 8.5415 



period ........................... 2484.2(1 



De Vico's comet of short period has not 

 been seen since 1844. This body is regarded 

 by Leverrier as identical with the comet dis- 

 covered by Lahire in 1678. It is situated most 

 favorably for observation when the perihelion 

 passage occurs about September 4th, and it is 

 remarkable that those of 1678 and 1844 took 

 place within a few days of the most favorable 

 date. A possible reason for the non^recovery 

 of the comet at any recent return was given in 

 Nature for July 27, 1876. The orbit of De 

 Vico's comet approaches very near to the orbit 

 of Mars at two points falling near 42 and 287 

 heliocentric longitude. At the former point 

 the distance between the two orbits is about 

 2,000,000 miles, and at the latter somewhat 

 less than 1,000,000; "and it is to be borne in 

 mind that these distances, small as they are, 

 may have been diminished very sensibly by the 

 effect of accumulated perturbation since 1855, 

 beyond which we have no calculation of the 

 effects of planetary attraction. If the mean 

 diurnal motion in 1855 were as large as 652.06*, 

 a value considerably within Brunnow's sug- 

 gested limits, the comet might hatfe come into 

 extremely close proximity to Mars at the end 

 of August, 1866, in about 42.3 heliocentric 

 longitude. " 



Meteors. Between ten and twelve o'clock 

 on the night of April 18, 1876, meteors were 

 seen in unusual numbers near Ellettsville, 

 Ind. A large majority of those whose tracks 

 were well observed were conformable to 

 the radiant in Lyra. Several were remark- 

 ably brilliant, apparently equal to stars of the 

 first or second magnitude. The meteors of 

 this epoch are supposed to be derived from 

 the first comet of 1861, and to move in the 

 same orbit. 



Watch was kept for meteors at York, Eng- 

 land, on the nights. of August 10th, llth, 12th, 

 and 14th. Several nights preceding the 10th 

 were cloudy, and the llth was very hazy. 

 The brightness of the moonlight also inter- 

 fered with the observations, except on the 

 14th, which may be regarded as the close of 

 the August epoch. The hourly numbers radi- 

 ating from Perseus, seen by a single observer, 



on the four nights were 18, 6, 9, 7. There wai, 

 therefore, a regular decrease from the 10th, 

 the apparent exception on the llth being due 

 to the haze. Making all allowance for unfavor- 

 able circumstances, Prof. Herschel thinks the 

 shower of 1876 indicates a minimum. 



On the evening of October 18, 1876, from 

 about half-past seven to nine o'clock, mete- 

 ors were seen in greater numbers than usual 

 at Bloomington, Ind. The maximum num- 

 ber for one observer was eleven per hour. 

 They all diverged from the vicinity of a point 

 between Taurus and Auriga. Most of the 

 meteors were small, though two were seen of 

 extraordinary magnitude. At Newburyport, 

 Mass., on the same night, at two o'clock A. M., 

 a bolide was observed to start from the same 

 part of the heavens. 



It was half the apparent size of the moon, which 

 it rivaled in brightness, the smallest objects being 

 visible in the intense white light of about two 

 seconds' duration. It left a train 10 long and 

 one-fourth of a degree wide, which remained 

 visible over a quarter of an hour. While the train 

 was being observed a large number of smaller 

 meteors passed, as often as one a minute, over the 

 same field, one or two of them leaving a slight 

 train. 



The meteors of November 14th move in the 

 orbit of Tempel's comet (1866), and are the 

 debris resulting from its disintegration. The 

 comet, together with the principal swarm of 

 meteors which immediately follow it, is now 

 approaching its aphelion near the orbit of 

 Uranus. As the existence, however, of more 

 than one cluster in the same orbit has been 

 clearly indicated, a yearly watch will be ne- 

 cessary, while passing the node, in order to 

 discover the law of meteoric distribution. " On 

 the morning of November 14th " (according 

 to Prof. Newton), " between twelve and one 

 o'clock, the sky at New Haven was partly 

 clear. Out of about twelve meteors been, three 

 might be called conformable to the radiant in 

 Leo. Shortly after one o'clock the sky became 

 wholly overcast." 



Aerolites and Meteoric Fire-lalls. In the 

 American Journal of Science for June, 1876, 

 Prof. J. Lawrence Smith, of Louisville, Ky., 

 describes a fire-ball seen by himself and 

 many other observers to pass Louisville on 

 the evening of January 81st, at half-past 

 five o'clock. The meteor was first seen about 

 60 above the horizon : its direction was from 

 northwest to southeast ; duration of flight, 

 two or three seconds; apparent size, one-six- 

 teenth that of the moon's disk. The bolide 

 exploded about 10 above the horizon, when 

 all the fragments disappeared, except tho 

 largest, which continued its course very nearly 

 to the horizon. 



A fall of aerolites took place near Stalldalen, 

 in Sweden, June 28, 1876, between the hours 

 of eleven and twelve A. M. The fall of the 

 stones was accompanied by a brilliant light, 

 though the day was cloudless. Two or three 

 loud detonations were heard, after which the 



