56 ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA. 



AUSTRALASIA. 



suits sufficiently exact. Were it desired to ex- 



who is an authority in meteoric astronomy, as 



press 48" 00 exactly, it might be done by calling he makes that branch his special work The 

 it 47 00' when the 60th word on page 47 radient of this shower is near the well-known 



- - cluster in Perseus, and the display of 1885 was 

 nearly equal to that of former years. The ra- 

 dient of the November shower (in our age) is 



v adtnonltive ") would represent it. Should 

 the indicated word prove to be a compound 

 one, as " letter-press," " stone-work," etc., it 

 will be necessary to use the preceding or fol- 

 lowing one, and thus introduce a slight error. 



Time of perihelion passage, November 9, '62, G. M. time = 814 62 = outshine. 



Perihelion from node.. = 13 21' = "S^flPSSS 



Longitude of node =249 39' = 249 89 = intercession. 



= 60041'.. - 604 1 = appeasableness. 



in Leo, and embraces that well-known group 

 of stars called the Sickle. 



Inclination 

 Perihelion distance 



61 75' 



67 75 = auctionary. 

 4)705 88 



176 84 = estreat. 



Control-word 

 Date of discovery, January .............. 7 



Light at date of discovery ............... = I'OO 



Sum ............. 71-00 ............................. = 71 CO = balance. 



E A 20" 32- 26- ............ = 308 1' ........................... - 308 07 = Occident. 



Dec. + 22 50' N. P. D. = 67 10' .............................................. = 6T 10 = attain. 



K. A 2oh- 49<- 52- ................... = 312 28' ................ ........... = 312 28 = ordnance. 



Dec. + 24 si' N. P. D. 

 E A 21&- 6 m - 53 s - 



65 29' 



316 43' 



= 65 29 = assent. 



= 816 43 = pachyderm. 



.......... 



Dec. + 26 4' N. P. D. = 63 56' ............................................... = C-8 56 = around. 



E. A. 21". 23>- 25- = 820 51' 



Dec. + 27 28' N. P. D. = 62 32' 



January 19 = 19 



Light on Jan. 19 = 0'66 



Sum 19066.. 



First observation, Dec. 18 =. 353d day of the year. 

 Second 4*- interval = Dec. 22 = 4 

 Third * " = Dec. 26 = 8 



Sum. 



320 51 = paring. 

 62 82 = archetype. 



190 66 = fish-monger. 



353 48 = 853 48 = purulent. 



Meteors, In 1885 ordinary and extraordinary 

 meteors (bolides) appeared with about the same 

 frequency as in other years. Probably the one 

 most interesting the brightest, and, presuma- 

 bly, the largest seen in this country since the 

 memorable one of 1860, passed over the zenith 

 of central New York at about 9 h - 10 m -, 75th 

 meridian time, on July 17. Its direction was 

 from southwest to northeast. It was witnessed 

 from northern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, west- 

 ern New England, all of New York State, and 

 a large portion of Canada. Its real magnitude 

 must have been great, and its brilliance sur- 

 passing conception, to have lighted, as it did 

 at one and the same instant, the entire area of 

 these regions with an illumination almost equal 

 to daylight. The random statements made and 

 published of this as well as of every other kin- 

 dred phenomenon render abortive the attempt 

 to compute its height, size, and velocity. 



At about ten o'clock in the evening of Aug. 

 20, another meteor was seen from Rochester, 

 N. Y., and the surrounding region, pursuing 

 very nearly the same path as that of July 17. 

 Though a meteor of the first class, it was much 

 inferior to the former in size and splendor. 



The November meteoric shower of 1884 

 was, as predicted, an inferior one. No dis- 

 play of any importance need be looked for 

 until the return of the thirty-three-year pe- 

 riod, on the morning of Nov. 15, 1899. 



The August shower (usually called the 10th 

 of August shower) really begins about the 22d 

 of July and ends abruptly on Aug. 11 or 12. 

 This is according to the observation of Dr. 

 Swift, of Rochester, N. Y., and is the result of 

 several years of study of this shower. It is 

 fully confirmed by Mr. Denning, of England, 



Bibliography. The "Proceedings of the Royal 

 Irish Academy " for July, 1884, contains a cata- 

 logue of known variable stars by J. E. Gore, 

 F. R. A. S. It occupies sixty-two pages, and 

 will be useful to those interested in this class 

 of stars. A paper by John Maguire, on total 

 solar eclipses visible in the British Isles from 

 A. D. 878 to 1724, was read before the Royal 

 Astronomical Society of England. From this 

 it appears that London was only twice visited 

 by total eclipses during the period named, viz., 

 in 878 and in 1715. Dublin also had two, and 

 Edinburgh experienced five. It shows, also, 

 that there is a small place on the coast of Ire- 

 land where no total eclipse could have been 

 seen during the 837 years comprised between 

 the given dates. Dr. Theodor Oppolzer, of 

 Vienna, is about to publish a list, prepared 

 under his direction, of the dates of solar and 

 lunar eclipses from B. c. 1207 to A. D. 2161. 

 There are 8,000 of the former and 5,200 of the 

 latter class. He greatly favors the new system 

 of reckoning time, and adopts it in the cata- 

 logue just mentioned. The micrometric meas- 

 urements of double stars by Baron Demboueki 

 have been published in two volumes, which 

 include also a short biographical sketch of the 

 astronomer himself. These books are valuable 

 additions to the literature of observational 

 astronomy, and to double-star observers must 

 be of priceless value. The " Sidereal Messen- 

 ger," the only astronomical journal published 

 on this continent, is issued monthly by Prof. 

 W. W. Payne, of Northfield, Minn. 



AUSTRALASIA. The British colonies of Aus- 

 tralasia all possess responsible government ex- 

 cept Western Australia. The Legislature of 

 New South Wales, the oldest colony, consists 



