SECT, xxxvii.] SHOOTING STARS. 449 



on the same day and during the same hours in 1832, and as 

 extraordinary flights of shooting stars were seen at many 

 places both in Europe and America on the 13th of 

 November, 1834, 1835, and 1836, tending also from a fixed 

 point in the constellation Leo, it has been conjectured, with 

 much apparent probability, that this nebula or group of 

 bodies performs its revolution round the sun in a period of 

 about 182 days, in an elliptical orbit, whose major axis is 

 119 millions of miles; and that its aphelion distance, where 

 it comes in contact with the earth's atmosphere, is about 

 95 millions of miles, or nearly the same with the mean dis- 

 tance of the earth from the sun. This body must have 

 met with disturbances after 1799, which prevented it from 

 encountering the earth for 32 years, and it may again de- 

 viate from its path from the same cause. 



As early as the year 1833, Professor Olmsted, of Yale 

 College, in the United States of America, had conjectured 

 that the phenomenon of shooting stars originated in the 

 zodiacal light, and his subsequent observations, continued 

 for three successive years, have tended to confirm him in 

 this opinion. He agrees with La Place in thinking that the 

 zodiacal light is a nebulous body, revolving in the plane of 

 the solar equator. In fact, this light stretches beyond the 

 earth's orbit, making an angle of about 7 with the plane 

 of the ecliptic, and, according to observation, it is sometimes 

 seen in the dawn, and sometimes in the twilight, like an 

 inferior planet. It was seen by Professor Olmsted for seve- 

 ral weeks previous to the 13th of November, in the morning 

 dawn, with an elongation (N. 231) of from 60 to 90 west 

 of the sun. It then by degrees withdrew from the morning 

 sky, and appeared in the evenings immediately after twi- 

 light, rising like a pyramid through the constellations Capri- 

 cornus and Aquarius to an elongation of more than 90 

 eastward of the sun. A change like this, taking place an- 

 nually about the 13th of November, has led the Professor 

 to believe that it is to the zodiacal light we are indebted 



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