46 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Febkuaky 1, 1898. 



NOTES ON COMETS AND METEORS. 



By W. F. Denning, f.r.a.s. 

 Comets. — Pons-Winnecke's comet was detected by Mr. 

 C. D. Perrine at the Lick Observatory on January 1st, 

 when it was described as very feebly visible. It may well 

 have appeared faint, seeing that its distance from the 

 earth was more thau one hundred and sixty million miles. 

 Presumably the comet was picked up with the thirty-six 

 inch refractor; but as the object is rapidly approaching the 

 earth, and gaining in apparent brilliancy, much smaller 

 telescopes will now have the capacity to reveal it. Hille- 

 brand's elements for the comet are : — 



Epoch March 15th, 1898. 



iM 359=^ 3' 52-0' 



ir 274' 14' 390' 



H 100° 53' 11-5' 



I 16° 59' 33-8' 



<^ ... 45° 37' 14-1 " 



/x ... 608"-5559 



Ephemeris for Berlin, midnight. 

 E.A. 

 H. M. .5. Dec. 



Feb. 10th 18 8 30 ... 12° 29-8' 

 12th 18 18 35 12° 47-8' 



14th 18 28 48 ... 13° 5-1' 



IGth 18 39 .. 13° 21-0' 



18th 18 49 28 ... 13° 35-4' 



20th 18 59 56 ... 13° 48-2' • 

 On February 1st the comet's distance will have decreased 

 to about one hundred and thirty-three million miles, and 

 it will be visible before sunrise iu the southern region of 

 Ophiuchus. The moon sets on the morning of February 

 1st at 4.15, and the comet may possibly be picked up about 

 two degrees north of the star 47 Ophiuchi (magnitude 6-3). 

 Perrine's comet (/) 1897, discovered October lOth) aud 

 D'Arrest's comet have become too faint to be observable in 

 ordinary telescopes. The former was seen on November 

 18th and 23rd, 1897, with a sixteen-inch refractor, at 

 Northfield, Minn., as a very faint elliptical glow, three 

 minutes long and one minute wide, without any perceptible 

 condensation, and so feeble that the slightest illumination 

 of the micrometer wires overpowered it. Three sets of 

 elements have been published, as follows : — 



Pavue and Young. Perrine. Moller. 



T 1897, "Dec. 8-9216 G.M.T. Deo. 8 8471. Dec. 8 6899. 



66" 10' 11" 66" 5' 42" 65° 56' 3-1" 



a ... 32" 4' 9" 32° 4' .5" 32" 3' 27" 



■ . . 69" 37 21" 69" 37' 41" 69° 36' 36" 



lug. q. 013186 O13206 0-13242 



In Ast. Xacli., 3471, Herr Bidschof gives some compu- 

 tations with regard to the ensuing return of the comet 

 (Tempel, 18(56, I.) of the November meteors. He supplies 

 a sweeping ephemeris, from which it appears the comet 

 will probably traverse Aries iu March and April, Taurus 

 in May and June, Gemini in July and August, and enter 

 Cancer at the middle of September. The great distance 

 of the comet and the uncertainty attaching to its precise 

 position, will, however, prevent its being seen. In the 

 summer and autumn of 1898 the comet aud earth will 

 rapidly approach each other, and the former may possibly 

 be rediscovered in the winter followmg. 



Meteors. — T'le Leunich of 1S97. — Herr A. A. Nyland, 

 of Utrecht, reports that on November 13th he watched 

 the sky from 12h. 51m. to 16h. 7m., and saw twelve 

 meteors, of which seven were Leonids and three Taurids. 

 November 14th was cloudy. On November 15th observa- 

 tions were made between 13h. 8m. and 16h. 45h., and 

 forty meteors were recorded, including thirty-two Leonids. 

 There was a well-defined radiant at 152° + 24" and a 



secondary position at 150° + 29°; no less than ten very 

 bright Leonids were observed, five being estimated to equal 

 first magnitude stars, one equal to Jupiter, and four equal 

 to A'enus. Fifteen of the Leonids left bright streaks. 'The 

 larger meteors exhibited an orange colour in five cases, and 

 a green hue in four cases. 



At the Radclifle Observatory, Oxford, Messrs. Wickham 

 and Robinson maintained a watch on November 13th 

 from llh. 15m. to 17h. 45m. There were occasional 

 clouds and moonlight was troublesome, so that during the 

 night only about forty meteors were seen. The nights of 

 November 14th and 15th were cloudy. 



Prof. A. S. Herschel, at Slough, observed about ten 

 meteors and no certain Leonids on November 13th, during 

 an extended watch of about seven hours between 9h. 30m. 

 and 18h. The sky was overcast on November 14th. 



Sir W. J. Herschel and Mr. J. C. W. Herschel, at 

 Littlemore, near Oxford, on the night of November 13th, 

 between 12h. 30m. and 16h. 15m., counted twenty-one 

 meteors, including about seven Leonids. 



Herr Franz, at the Observatory at Breslau, on November 

 13th, saw six meteors (three Leonids) ; and on November 

 14th before 16h. recorded twenty-one meteors, including 

 fourteen Leonids, from a radiant at about 145° + 25°. 



Herr Rigginbach, at Basel, on November 13th, between 

 12h. 80m. and 14h. 30m., counted nineteen meteors (ten 

 Leonids). The following nights were cloudy. 



The number of bright Leonids observed by Nyland on 

 the morning of November 16th indicates that, had the 

 sky been favourable before sunrise on November 15th, the 

 shower was, probably, a conspicuous one. Herr Franz's 

 observations on the morning of November 15 th terminated 

 at 4h. (= G.M.T. 2h. 62m. a.m.), and before the maximum 

 occurred. 



Two of the meteors seen by Sir W. J. Herschel and 

 Mr. J. C. W. Herschel, near Oxford, were also recorded by 

 Jlessrs. Wickham and Robinson, at the Radclifle Obser- 

 vatory, Oxford, and by Mr. W. E. Besley at Walthamstow. 

 The meteors were of the first magnitude. One appearing 

 on November 13th, 15h. 28m., was a Cmicrid, descending 

 from one hundred and twenty-five to seventy-seven miles 

 over the North Sea to Halesworth, in Sufi'olk. The other 

 was a true Leonid, appearing at 15h. 52m., and falling 

 from one hundred and three to fifty-nine miles over the 

 Strait of Dover to Cranbrook, in Kent. 



Tlie Geminiils. — Moonlight greatly interfered with obser- 

 vations of this shower. Mr. E. N. CuUum, of Whitby, 

 reports, however, that meteors were both numerous and 

 brilliant on the evening of December 12th. He recorded 

 ten between 8h. and 9h., and many others were seen 

 afterwards. They were nearly all (ieminids. 



During the past autumn an unusually large number oi 

 fireballs have been observed. In the majority of cases, 

 however, the observations were not sufiiciently precise and 

 complete to allow real paths to be computed. Three 

 splendid meteors, appearing at convenient times in the 

 evening, were widely observed, and from a large number 

 of descriptions I worked out the following results :— 



Rr.\L P.4THS OF Thbef: Firfuvlls, 1S97. 



