Oct. 4, 1888] 



NATURE 



557 



meteors appeared trainless, and shone out for a moment like so 

 many stars, because they were directly approaching us. Near 

 this spot they were so numerous, and all so foreshortened, and 

 for the most part faint, that the sky at times put on almost a 

 phosphorescent appearance. As the eye travelled from this 



region the trains became longer, those being longest as a rule 

 which first made their appearance overhead, or which rended 

 westward. Now, if the paths of all had been projected back- 

 wards, they would have all intersected in one region, and that 

 region the one in which the most foreshortened ones were seen. 



Fig. 7. — The radiant point of the November meteors. 



Fig- 8. — Radiant point oflong duration (October-November), Denning. 



So decidedly did this fact come out that there were moments in 

 which the meteors belted the sky like the meridians on a terres- 

 trial globe, the pole of the globe being represented by a point in 

 the constellation Leo. In fact, they all seemed to radiate from 

 that point, and radiant point, as we have seen, is precisely the 



name given to it by astronomers. Vanishing point, if the bull 

 were permissible, is a term- which would represent the fact 

 rather than the appearance which is an effect of perspective ; and 

 hence we gather that the paths of the meteors are parallel, 

 or nearly so, and that they come therefore from one point 



