October 7, 1897] 



NATURE 



541 



Table \.— Observations of Perseid and Non-Perseid Meteors in July and August^ 1897. 



Dates of the 

 Watches 



1897 



July 16 

 „ 18 



State of the Sky 



Clear 

 Raihir hazy 

 Very clear 



Slif;ht cloud 



25 i 



26 Cloudy for ih. 



August 



Cloudy for 15m. 



Clear 



Very clear 



Exlremelv clear 



Clear 

 Cloudy 



Clear 

 Very clear 



None 

 First qr. ; faint 



None 



Gibbous : weak, 

 till I3h. 



Hours of Watches ; and 

 their Kquivalent Dura- 

 tions in a clear tlark sky 



Numbers of Meteors seen 



Moon's Phase, anil 

 Brightness 



Gibbous; and bright 



Third qr. : faint 

 Last crescent ; fiint 



Faint 

 None 



lotal Length of clear Watch ; and Numbers of Meteors seen 



From the Perseid 

 Radiants 



Lengths j ♦ 

 (about) I 



B, C 

 Cam. 



elo- 

 pardi 



V 



— : 2 

 i 



I 



3U 



— 4i 



— 2! 



1 10 



2 I 



— 2 — 



- -\ I{? 



I 4 3 

 I I 14 



334 ^ 20 23 17 27 



Total Numbers , Numbers of 

 of Sporadic 



Perseids I Meteors 



3 

 3 



8 



3 



4 



20 



7 

 7 

 6 



i(?) 

 14 



2S 



(one - 9.) 



113 



(one 



9.) 



i(?), 



26 

 (one = 4 X 



?•) 



167 



watches kept until August 9, the five radiant- points of the 

 Perseids which seemed to be certainly determined being noted 

 as L-V. in the Table, and being also graphically represented in 

 the accompanying Figure (i), of the 113 or 114 tracks of 

 Perseids which were noted. In another Table (IL) the hourly 

 numbers are shown of the meteors of these Perseid showers 



bright streak from 353°, +5° to 350', -f l°, which remained 

 visible for three-quarters of a minute. It was not a true Per- 

 seid, but if it was identical with a bright meteor seen at the 

 same hour at Exeter by Mr. Besley, its radiant-point appears to 

 have been near k and )3 Persei, at 45°, -|- 45°. The Venus-like 

 Perseid which fell at I4h. 43m. on the same night from 



Table IL 



In short Watches of ih. only. 



on the nights of their greatest frequencies, and of sporadic 

 meteors seen on the same nights, using only dark clear hours 

 of the watches from near midnight onwards, to derive the 

 numbers. 



The small fireball seen on August 9, at I4h. 18m., lit up the 

 ground with a slight, but sensible illumination, and left a 



NO. 1458, VOL. 56] 



88°, + 37° to 98", + 26', near Venus, in the East, also left a 

 very dense bright streak, visible for 15 seconds; its apparent 

 course here was straight from »; Persei. The equally bright 

 meteor seen in a break between clouds on the previous evening, 

 from 261% -f 26° to 255°, -f 10°, at 9h. lom. (± 3m.), was also 

 true in direction from tj Persei, and might be identical with a 



